Cannes Hot Package: ‘Spinal Tap II’ On Tap As Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest & Harry Shearer Back For Encore

By Mike Fleming, Jt.
May 12,2022


Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean in 1984's "This Is Spinal Tap" / Everett

Deadline caught up with Reiner, and here is how he described the ambition: “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? 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.”

The three members, who wrote the music and lyrics — some with Reiner — for standards like Smell the Glove, Hell Hole, Big Bottom and Lick My Love Pump, have in the past toured as the band, though not recently.

“They’ve played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe,” Reiner said. “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.”

The original was filled with rising talent, and there is a good chance that band members who watch the film over and over might find their way into the sequel.

“Hopefully there will be some guest artists,’ Reiner said. “The thing I’ve heard from so many bands and we’re talking about possibly doing a couple books, but one will be Tap Moments that real bands have had. Like in the movie, they get stoned and can’t find the stage, that happened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. When Nigel is frustrated by the little bread in the catering that won’t hold the cold cuts, that last one was taken from a Rolling Stone article about a tour Van Halen had when, in their rider, they didn’t want brown M&Ms. We had an original keyboard player, Jonathan Sinclair, who when he was with the band Uriah Heep, visited us and said they’d been book into a military base, and we put that in, too. When I met with Sting years ago, he said, I’ve seen that movie 50 times and every time I watch it I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Because it’s so much what happens. With all of that, we’ve had a lot of bands share their experiences and so hopefully we’ll include some of that in the film.”

Reiner’s back onscreen as the director who filmed the band in the original.

“I’m back playing Marty DiBergi,” he said. “The band was upset with the first film. They thought I did a hatchet job and this is a chance to redeem myself. I am such a big fan and I felt bad they didn’t like what they saw in the first film. When I heard they might get back together, I was a visiting adjunct teacher’s helper at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts. I drop everything to document this final concert.”

The film will be released March, 19 2024, and chances are initial audiences will have an easier time understanding the rhythms, than they did the first time around.

“You have no idea what’s going to happen and the first time we screened in Dallas, they didn’t know what the hell it was,” Reiner said. “People came up to me and said, I don’t understand why would you make a movie about a band no one has heard of and is so bad. Why would you do it? I said, it’s satire and I would explain, but it took awhile for people to catch up to it. Now, it’s in the National Film Registry,” said Reiner, who relaunched Castle Rock with a $175 million film fund.

Full article > [deadline.com]

--

Wonder if they'll do "Stonehenge"...

Smell the glove!!!!!!!

It's showing again on BBC 2 this Sunday .record it .keep it. And enjoy forever and never take yourself seriously again

Oops,for any who cares in the uk it's Saturday night at 10 40 not Sunday.. Yer who gives a shit ..ha

Quote
06230
Oops,for any who cares in the uk it's Saturday night at 10 40 not Sunday.. Yer who gives a shit ..ha

I own a blu-ray. Mine goes to 11. Just for that little push over the cliff....

Watched it again tonight after reading that piece on Tap II. A full hour of deleted scenes on the DVD plays like a film of sorts - some are additions to existing scenes of course, but you also have David's son showing up, Dereks phone calls to his soon to be ex spouse, and the replacement for Nigel on guitar who upstaged the frontman. Short clips but well worth watching.

Lots of Tap gold on YouTube; TV appearances, live performances on Letterman..etc.

"None more black" - now that's an album cover!

Fran Drescher, John Michael Higgins, Griffin Matthews & More Set For Roles In ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Sequel

By Matt Grobar
March 26, 2024

[deadline.com]

Hopefully the cold sores have healed up.

Lieutenant Fred Willard on the Air Base: "Just get it on and get it over with".

Shit Sandwich.

Spinal Tap II ...
is it TWO or ELEVEN?

I have read this is indeed happening, but I believe they only started filming last month or even this month. So my guess is a release will be later this year or next year. I'm sure it will be a gigglefest.

Filming started this month. Louisiana Entertaiment says filming of "Goodbye Cleveland" (aka Spinal Tap 2) is scheduled through April 12.

[www.louisianaentertainment.gov]

[filmneworleans.org]

Offbeat Magazine reports that a concert scene was filmed at UNO Lakefront Arena.

[www.offbeat.com]

I hope it works. Of course they'll be a lot older, and I'm sure there are plenty of gags there. At the time few people knew who Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean were. Now they're well known. There are plenty of stories of heritage groups going on the road to various success. The fans only want the hits, etc.

I hope it's not a disappointment. I've watched the original so many times now, the Criterion DVD with all the deleted scenes is awesome. The autograph session where Paul Schaffer tells them to kick his ass because nobody shows up! In the outtakes, a fan does show up and they sign the Smell The Glove album but since it's a black album and they use a black sharpie, he can't see the signatures!
I remember reading that the Scorpions hated the movie because they thought it was about them! I'm sure most metal bands in the early 80s thought that.
In regards to VH's infamous no brown m&m's clause, DLR wanted it in there to see if the promotors were reading the contract carefully. If there were brown ones in the bowl, then he figured what else are they not reading.

Hopefully we'll get a full band version of "Lick My Love Pump"!

Leave well enough alone. Example Blue Brothers 2000

Paul McCartney and Elton John made trips to New Orleans in March. Here's why.

By Keith Spera
April 1, 2024

Elton John and Paul McCartney make a big splash whenever they come to New Orleans for concerts.

But the two rock legends both slipped in and out of town in March without attracting much attention.

They each made a quick trip to New Orleans to film cameo appearances in the sequel to the 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” which is currently in production in New Orleans.

The original “Spinal Tap,” directed by Rob Reiner, starred Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as the bumbling members of a fictional British heavy metal band. The spoof of music documentaries and rock music clichés — from getting lost backstage to a comically miniature Stonehenge prop to an amplifier that famously cranked up all the way to 11 — struck a chord with music fans and musicians alike.

Forty years after the original film's release, Reiner, McKean, Guest and Shearer have reunited to shoot the sequel in New Orleans, where Shearer lives much of the year.

Reiner revealed during a podcast appearance in November that both McCartney and Elton, plus Garth Brooks and other real-life stars, had agreed to appear in the sequel.

Sure enough, Elton took part in a Spinal Tap concert sequence shot at the University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena on March 16.

More than 1,000 extras had turned out the previous day to serve as the audience for a Spinal Tap concert. At the end of the long, grueling day of shooting, said one extra, Reiner came onstage and announced that Elton John would participate in the following day’s shoot.

That pretty much guaranteed most extras would show up again the next day.

Elton reportedly got way into the spirit of film, playing piano on a Spinal Tap song while in costume. He even performed his own stunt, a source said.

A week later, it was McCartney’s turn. Unlike Elton, he didn’t shoot a concert scene. Instead, his cameo was reportedly shot during a couple hours at a local film production studio.

During an interview in late November, Shearer, who was already well on his way to growing out his Derek Smalls character’s trademark bushy mustache/sideburn combination, said that he, McKean and Guest had recently spent a week in New Orleans rehearsing music for the Spinal Tap sequel.

Assuming McCartney and Elton's footage doesn't end up on the cutting room floor, that sequel will feature a couple of music’s biggest names.

Production is expected to wrap up in May.

[www.nola.com]

A 'Spinal Tap 2' spoiler for you..

[forums.stevehoffman.tv]