One of the most iconic heavy metal films of all time is getting a sequel. Deadline reports that the legendary mockumentary, “This Is Spinal Tap,” is getting a part two. Written and directed by Rob Reiner, “This Is Spinal Tap” follows one of England’s “loudest bands” on tour in America. The satire poked fun at the outrageous behavior and musical pretentious of rock bands of the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Reiner will play a returning role as filmmaker Marty DiBergi, and all of Spinal Tap’s key players — Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins, Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls, and Christopher Guest as Nigel Tunfel — also return. “The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, why don’t you do another one?,” Reiner said. “For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story.”
McKean, Shearer and Guest wrote Spinal Tap’s music including the hilarious “Smell the Glove,” “Hell Hole,” “Big Bottom” and “Lick My Love Pump.”
“They’ve played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe,” Reiner said. “They haven’t spent any time together recently, and that became the premise. The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra passed away. Ian’s widow inherited a contract that said Spinal Tap owed them one more concert. She was basically going to sue them if they didn’t. All these years and a lot of bad blood we’ll get into and they’re thrown back together and forced to deal with each other and play this concert.”
Reiner hopes to have guest artists in the sequel. “Hopefully there will be some (guests),” Reiner said. “The thing I’ve heard from so many bands and we’re talking about possibly doing a couple books, but one will be Tap Moments that real bands have had. Like in the movie, they get stoned and can’t find the stage, that happened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. When Nigel is frustrated by the little bread in the catering that won’t hold the cold cuts, that last one was taken from a Rolling Stone article about a tour Van Halen had when, in their rider, they didn’t want brown M&Ms. We had an original keyboard player, Jonathan Sinclair, who when he was with the band Uriah Heep, visited us and said they’d been book into a military base, and we put that in, too. When I met with Sting years ago, he said, I’ve seen that movie 50 times and every time I watch it I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Because it’s so much what happens. With all of that, we’ve had a lot of bands share their experiences and so hopefully we’ll include some of that in the film.”
Reiner also revealed that in the film, Spinal Tap is upset with Marty DiBergi. “The band was upset with the first film. They thought I did a hatchet job and this is a chance to redeem myself. I am such a big fan and I felt bad they didn’t like what they saw in the first film. When I heard they might get back together, I was a visiting adjunct teacher’s helper at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts. I drop everything to document this final concert.”
The film is set to be released on March 19, 2024. When “This Is Spinal Tap was released, not everybody got that it was a mockumentary. The Edge of U2 loved it: “I didn’t laugh, I wept. It was so close to the truth.” Ozzy Osbourne didn’t understand it, saying the first time he watched it, he thought it was a real documentary. Early home video versions of the movie also reportedly had a disclaimer at the start and finish of the movie stating the band didn’t really exist.
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