It’s time to start accurately measuring Stonehenge and dialing your amps up to eleven because Spinal Tap is roaring back to the big screen. Rob Reiner will be back to direct the sequel, as well as playing filmmaker Marty DiBergi. He’ll be joined by original band members David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest). 1984’s This is Spinal Tap is widely regarded as one of the best comedy movies of all time.
In March 2024, it will have been 40 years since the release of This is Spinal Tap, so it makes sense that they would start working on a sequel now. Reiner told Deadline; “The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film.”
He continued; “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 of how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honour the first one and push it a little further with the story.”
This is Spinal Tap was Rob Reiner’s directorial debut, and he went on to make beloved films Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men. Christopher Guest is also known for writing and directing comedy movies including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.
Michael McKean has over 240 acting credits, and he has recently received critical acclaim for playing Jimmy’s brother Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul. Harry Shearer is best known for his voice acting on The Simpsons – he plays Mr Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, and Seymour Skinner.
Reiner says that the premise is that the band haven’t seen each other for a long time, and are still nursing old grudges; “They haven’t spent any time together recently, and that became the premise…All these years and a lot of bad blood we’ll get into. They’re thrown back together, forced to deal with each other and play a concert.”
This will be the first project from the newly relaunched Castle Rock Entertainment. Find out whether This is Spinal Tap made our list of best 80s movies.