Plans for a sequel to the iconic 198 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap have been revealed.
Spinal Tap II will see director Rob Reiner return alongside stars Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest as the British rock band, playing David St Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls.
Speaking to Deadline, Reiner – who appears as filmmaker Marty DiBergi in the first film and will reprise his role in the sequel – said that the new movie will be released on 19 March, 2024.
“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?” said the director.
“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 honour the first one and push it a little further with the story.”
Reiner explained the concept of the new film further, saying that it will revolve around the fact that the band are due to play one last show.
“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,” said Reiner.
“The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra [who played the manager in the first film] passed away [in 2021]. 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.”
Earlier this month Ric Parnell, who played Mick Shrimpton, drummer of Spinal Tap, died aged 70.
