Robert Schwartzman, who found critical success with his recent documentary about the British Invasion band The Zombies, has begun work on another music doc, this one about Las Vegas legend Wayne Newton.
The director revealed that the “Danke Schoen” singer would be his next subject Thursday night during a Q&A session that followed a screening of Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary (2023) at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Newton, 83, was just a teenager when he began performing in Las Vegas with his older brother, Jerry, and the colorful live performer has logged tens of thousands of performances in the city — and he’s still going strong.
Born in Virginia and raised in Arizona, Newton was generously given “Danke Schoen” to record in the early 1960s by “Mack the Knife” singer Bobby Darin, and the song peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He also had another big hit with “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast,” which made it to No. 4 in 1972, and he has worked as an actor, with turns on Bonanza, License to Kill (1989) and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990).
Schwartzman said Newton is participating in the documentary.
Hung Up on a Dream premiered at SXSW in 2023, played the festival circuit and had a brief theatrical run. It just became available to stream on Apple TV+, Amazon and Altavod.
The Zombies — keyboardist Rod Argent, vocalist Colin Blunstone, guitarist Paul Atkinson, bassist Chris White and drummer Hugh Grundy — are known for such hits as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.
On Friday, it was announced that The Zombies will release a remastered mono version of 1967’s Odessey and Oracle, which regularly shows up on lists of the greatest rock albums of all time, on Sept. 26 via Beechwood Park Records.
Schwartzman, a son of two-time Oscar-nominated actress Talia Shire as a member of the iconic Francis Ford Coppola family, recently directed The Good Half (2023), starring Nick Jonas, Brittany Snow, David Arquette, Matt Walsh and Elisabeth Shue. It was his fourth narrative feature.
Schwartzman also has a music career as the lead vocalist of the rock/pop band Rooney.