It’s taken a while, but Spinal Tap II is almost a wrap.
It was back in 2022 that director Ron Reiner confirmed that after years of being asked about, a sequel to the classic 1984 mockumentary was under way. Now, in an interview with Deadline he has shared a timeline for when fans can finally expect to see it.
“It’s going good,” he said. “Our first screening for our family and friends will be probably in August, and then sometime in September we’ll start showing it to distributors, and we’re hoping to have it out sometime late spring or early summer of next year.” He added that filming is currently nearing a close in New Orleans.
Reportedly there are cameos from Paul McCartney, Elton John, plus both Chad Smith and Lars Ulrich, who are unlucky enough to take turns in the band’s revolving drummer’s chair (previous incumbents had amongst other things, spontaneously combusted and been involved in a ‘bizarre gardening accident’).
It’s been confirmed that Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer will reprise their roles as Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls, whilst Reiner himself will again play Marti DiBergi the fictional director who makes the Spinal Tap doc.
Spinal Tap is the original mockumentary, huge swathes of which have passed into and become interwoven with real rock folklore. Fans of the original have long hoped for a sequel, something that up until recently Reiner had resisted.
“We never thought we would do a sequel,” he told the NME in 2022. “It was only because we started to talk to each other and we came up with an idea we think might work...The bar is incredibly high. We debated whether or not we should do it… I said, ‘Look at us, we’re all in our 70s. How much time are we going to have [left] to have some fun?’”
“Marty DiBergi was roundly criticised by the band members for having done a hatchet job, [but] he’s going to be doing the second film,” Reiner said. “Marty has not been that successful [since].
"I think he made Kramer vs Kramer vs Godzilla, which didn’t do very well. It was a threesome, and they were all in love... and, unfortunately, Godzilla crushed the other two, so it didn’t work.”
In a 2022 statement to Deadline, Reiner, seemingly in character as DiBergi, 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.”
