After nearly 40 years, the classic 1984 movie “This Is Spinal Tap” is getting a sequel.
Dateline is reporting that the spoof heavy-metal band created by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer will be making a comeback in a sequel to the mockumentary called “Spinal Tap II.”
Sadly, it looks like the number in the title is meant to be a “2,” and not the number “11,” which looms large in the band’s legend, as you can see from this clip from the first movie.
Rob Reiner will direct the movie as well as reprise his role as doofus documentarian Marty DiBergi.
He told Deadline that he was constantly asked about whether there would ever be a sequel to the film but said that he and his collaborators came up with the right approach only recently.
“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,” he said.
Reiner noted that Guest, McKean and Shearer have performed as Spinal Tap all over the world but “haven’t spent any time together recently, and that became the premise.”
He said the plot will center on the death of longtime manager Ian Faith, played in the film by Tony Hendra.
“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,” Reiner explained. “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 said there might be some cameos from famous musicians in the film and added that band might also do a book dedicated to the experiences of real-life rockers that parallel the incidents in the movie.
“Like in the movie, they get stoned and can’t find the stage, that happened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” Reiner said.
The new film will be released March 19, 2024, or 40 years and 17 days after the original’s world premiere.
Of course, Twitter users had thoughts.
And, of course, someone quoted one of the film’s lines.