Lord of the Rings' Christopher Lee Is Getting an Epic Documentary

The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee showcases all sides of the iconic actor.

By Jamie Jirak

Christopher Lee is one of the most beloved actors of all time, and throughout his 92 years, he had nearly 300 acting credits to his name. The actor was known for playing Dracula in various projects, Saruman in Peter Jackson's The Lord of The Rings trilogy, Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, and much more. In addition to his acting career, Lee had a very interesting life, which is now being turned into an epic documentary. 

According to BBC, The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee is a new film that features interviews with Lee's friends, family, and collaborators. Director Jon Spira had access to Lee's scrapbooks in addition to 100 interviews from the British Film Institute's library, telling BBC that Lee's life is an "incredible story." In addition to his vast acting career, the movie will also touch on Lee's military career during World War II. That part of Lee's life has always been "shrouded in mystery," but it's known that the actor helped track down Nazi war criminals.

"Because he could speak fluently a range of different languages he got pulled into the secret service doing missions of which the facts have never fully come out," Spira shared." His cousin was Ian Fleming, and a lot of people think the character of James Bond was based on him ... He certainly didn't do anything to disavow people of that."

"You could almost do this as two films," he continued." That's why we called it The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee, because his life is one story and his career is another."

The film will feature interviews with directors such as Joe Dante, John Landis, and Peter Jackson.

"Peter Jackson was very prepared to talk about the emotional side," Spira revealed. "About how amazed he was as a film fan, in awe of Christopher Lee, and couldn't believe he got to work with him. He discovered his unique insecurities, like many actors have ... He was a really complex person who was very emotional, and had this austere image. He had a lot of frustrations in his life – we explore that."

Spira is also crowdfunding for the film's Blu-ray release.

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"There's a whole market of people who are being forgotten that really love film, want to own it, and maybe don't trust that these things will always be streaming."

Stay tuned for more updates about upcoming films. 

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