DirectorRob Reinerhas revealed that he will begin filming the long, long-awaited sequel to the acclaimed mockumentaryThis Is Spinal Tapin February next year. The filmmaker made the revelation during a recent episode ofRHLSTP With Richard Herring podcast, also confirming that the likes of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer will all return.
“We’re making a sequel. We’re going to start shooting in the end of February and everybody is back.”
In 2024, it will be 40 years sinceThis Is Spinal Taphit screens, with the rock music mockumentary having now carved out an enviable legacy in the time since. Co-written and directed by Rob Reiner in his feature directorial debut,This Is Spinal Tapshines a light on the life and times of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts. The film charts their journey and includes everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, taking audiences behind-the-scenes and featuring jokes and dialogue that have now made their way into the pop culture zeitgeist.
After so many years,This Is Spinal Tap 2will need to turn things up to eleven, and Reiner knows how to do it, revealing that the sequel will feature cameos from some of the biggest names in music, including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks and “a few other surprises.”
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This Is Spinal Tap 2 Will See the Band Forced to Play One Final Concert
In an earlier interview withDeadline, Reiner revealed details regarding the plot of the sequel, which will find the band forced to play one final concert all these years later.
“They’ve played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe. 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.”
This Is Spinal Tapwas released to critical acclaim, but little commercial success. A cult following came later, with the movie now considered one of the greatest comedies of all time as well as effectively launchingthe mockumentary genre. In 2002,This Is Spinal Tapwas selected for preservation by the National Film Registry as it is now deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress.
The sequel comes following the 2020 relaunch of Castle Rock’s film division, the production company founded byRob Reineralongside Martin Shafer, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn, with the filmmaker endeavoring to “honor” the film movie.
“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? 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.”
