Ronnie James Dio's widow, Wendy Dio, has revealed that the new documentary on the metal legend will be released this year.

Wendy spoke with journalist Lucas H Gordon about the doc, stating: "Coming out (this) year. I just saw the first cut of it, it was very emotional. It's very different from the book (Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography). It goes all the way from... 'cause the book finishes in 1986, with Ronnie playing Madison Square Garden, but the documentary goes all the way through his life till the end. And it was very emotional. I was watching it with my publicist, Sharon Weisz, and a person from BMG, who are funding the documentary, and we all cried. We all cried, it was very emotional. But it's really interesting and really good. Rob Halford is great in it, talking about stories. Lita Ford, Jack Black. Eddie Trunk and Mick Wall both kind of narrated it and everything. I'm very pleased with it. I don't know exactly when it's gonna come out (this) year, but it'll be out (this) year."

Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography was released last July via Permuted Press in the US and Canada, and Constable in the UK. The book was co-written with British music journalist Mick Wall and Wendy Dio.

Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography is illustrated throughout with photographs, largely never-before-seen, derived from family photo albums and personal archives, plus an eight-page color insert devoted to additional rare photographs from Ronnie's life and career.

To bring the book to completion, Wendy Dio, whom Ronnie met in 1975, married in 1978 and became his manager following his painful departure from Rainbow, fleshed out certain unfinished sections with additional details and her own observations of specific events covered in the book. Over the past 30 years, Wendy Dio has been involved in many aspects of the music business, receiving awards for stage set design and concert video production, along with serving as executive producer on numerous Gold and Platinum albums. In 2010, she co-founded the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund (www.diocancerfund.org) in Ronnie’s memory, which has gone on to raise over $2,000,000 for cancer research, education and early detection screenings.  She worked with esteemed British music journalist and author Mick Wall, who, as a rock music writer for publications such as Classic Rock, Mojo, The Times and a variety of others, had interviewed Ronnie countless times, to finalize the manuscript. In addition to writing for many of the UK’s major music publications, Wall has produced award-winning television and radio documentaries and has written biographies of musicians and bands, among them When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin and Two Riders Were Approaching: The Life & Death of Jimi Hendrix.

(Photo - Gene Kirkland)