Deadline reports that This is Spinal Tap, the iconic, influential, and endlessly quotable 1984 hard rock mockumentary, is getting a sequel, with Rob Reiner returning to direct and original stars/writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer reprising their roles as Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins, and Derek Smalls.
The original Spinal Tap is set to screen at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, so the authors decided to use that opportunity to announce the return with a sequel.
Reiner, who will also be back in front of the camera as documentarian Marty DiBergi, told Deadline that the plan is to have it ready for the 40th anniversary of the first 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.”
So what’s the right idea? “They’ve played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe,” Reiner told Deadline. “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.”
