By Brett Milano

Though the Zombies are a great group, they may also be a biographer’s nightmare.

They’re all good friends and proper gentlemen, so there’s no dirty laundry. They’re not even shamefully overlooked anymore, since they made the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

But according to Robert Schwartzman, director of the new Zombies biopic “Hung Up on a Dream,” there’s still a fascinating story to tell.

“I told them I wanted to make a movie that rises to the level of the music they’ve made,” Schwartzman said in a phone interview. “It was kind of beautiful to find the story as I was interviewing the subjects. I think the great themes there are about friendship, and their love for music over the years. To me their story is about staying the course, marching to your own drum until things finally catch up with you. To me they’re the ultimate example of loving what you do — If they wanted to get rich they would have called it a day back when.”

A musician himself, Schwartzman leads the LA power pop band Rooney who opened for ELO at Boston Garden last fall. When the movie screens at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville on July 11, he and Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone will both be present to take questions and perform a short set of Zombies hits.

In a separate interview, Blunstone echoes that the Zombies story is largely about hope.

“Like many bands, the Zombies had extraordinary ups and downs. We made that record ‘She’s Not There’ when we were around 18. If we’d had a choice, it might have been better if that happened when we were more prepared for it, but we were thrown into a business that we knew nothing about.”

So the band barely turned a profit on its ’60s success.

“I hope it doesn’t look like I’m asking for sympathy, because so many UK bands had a similar story to tell — maybe it’s an initiation ceremony that you go through in the music business. But I think people can see the hope in our story — and with the Hall of Fame induction it turned out to be justified.”

The movie hits all the touchstones, including the group’s mid-60s success with “She’s Not There,” the surprise hit with “Time of the Season” after they had split up, the critical rediscovery of the 1968 album “Odessey & Oracle,” and the Zombies’ successful, latter-day reunion around founders Blunstone and Rod Argent (keyboardist and songwriter).

But there are a few nuggets that fans wouldn’t already know about — like drummer Hugh Grundy’s ’70s stint as a major-label talent scout, when he was told by the label that his big discovery, namely Queen, wasn’t worth the investment.

Also newly revealed is a family trauma in Blunstone’s life; he didn’t learn until adulthood that his aunt was actually his birth mother.

“That was a bit of a risk, but I was encouraged to tell a story I hadn’t told before. And I hoped I could bring that back to the theme of hope. It was a difficult moment (during World War II) and people were living through extraordinary times. So I hope that people might hear my story and take something from it.”

Blunstone also learned from the movie that he’s got one of the sexiest voices in music. That verdict comes from Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, one of a few big names (with Dave Grohl and the band HAIM) who proclaim their fanship.

“Funny enough, this kind of thing happens more in the autumn of my career than it did when I was younger,” he says. “If people take pleasure from my singing performance, then that’s wonderful. I never found it particularly sexy myself but that’s for other people to judge.”

Blunstone still tours as a solo artist, but the Zombies reunion came to an abrupt end in 2023 when Rod Argent suffered a stroke.

But Blunstone has some good news for fans: “Rod is doing really well, getting stronger all the time. He’s 80 now and thought the stroke made it time to bring his touring career to an end. But he is writing music and we may record some of it together — In fact I can say that we will be doing that, and there may be small promotional concerts to launch an album. And we would be doing that as the Zombies.”