Set Speakers To 11: Spinal Tap II Is In The Works, And Here Are The First Plot Details
It's time for "Big Bottom," baby, because the world's greatest fictional live-action heavy metal band are back! Castle Rock Entertainment announced in a press release that they have chosen the first project for their relaunch, and it's a sequel to the beloved 1984 mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap." Castle Rock relaunched their film division in October 2021 with a $175 million film fund under CEO Rob Reiner and co-presidents Matthew George and Michele Reiner, so it makes sense that the first film out of the gate would be a Reiner picture. It's also the perfect time for a "Spinal Tap" sequel, as the original film will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in early 2024, and the studio plans on releasing the sequel to coincide with the major anniversary.
Real love for a fake band
"This is Spinal Tap" was Reiner's directorial debut, and he will return to helm the sequel and play faux filmmaker Marty DiBergi, who tries to wrangle the rock stars of Spinal Tap into a decent documentary. The sequel will reunite him once more with the fictional band, including David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest). Reiner, McKean, Shearer, and Guest will collaborate to conceive the new film, as the first was a product of their collective imaginations. Reiner's vision for "Spinal Tap II" is fairly simple, but works well with the slightly cheeky tone of it all:
"When it was announced that Spinal Tap would reunite for one final concert, Marty DeBergi saw this as a chance to make things right with the band who viewed 'This is Spinal Tap' as a hatchet job. So he left his position as visiting adjunct teacher's assistant at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts in pursuit of film history."
The "Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts" is just the kind of silly cinema in-joke you'd expect from a "Spinal Tap" flick, and it should be fun to see DeBergi try to work with older, potentially wiser versions of the rock stars. (Then again, the "wiser" part is very unlikely with the loudest band in England, no matter their age.)
"This is Spinal Tap" was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2022, deeming the film "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant," and it will screen at the Cannes Film Festival's Cinema de la Plage sidebar on May 18, 2022. "Spinal Tap II" is still in early production, so we're hoping to get more details soon. Maybe this time they can get a slightly larger Stonehenge.