Paul McCartney and Elton John are among the real-life musicians set to make cameo appearances in the upcoming sequel to rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.
Rob Reiner, who directed the 1984 film, revealed several guest stars and teased further details about the sequel during an appearance on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.
The new film was originally slated to appear in March 2024 to coincide with the original’s 40th anniversary, but production has been delayed due to the Hollywood strikes. “We’re going to start shooting in the end of February,” said Reiner.
The filmmaker also confirmed that the original cast of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer would all be returning, as well as some notable guest appearances.
“Everybody’s back,” said Reiner. “Paul McCartney is joining us, and Elton John. And a few other surprises, Garth Brooks.”
Looking back at the original film, which has become a cult favourite, Reiner said the initial reaction was muted.
“When we first previewed it, we previewed it in a theater in Dallas, Texas, and people… they didn’t know what the heck they were looking at,” Reiner recalled.
David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) of Spinal Tap performing at Live Earth in 2007— (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
“They came up to me afterward and said, ‘I don’t understand. Why would you make a movie about a band that nobody’s ever heard of? And they’re so bad! Why would you do that?’” he added. “They said, ‘You should make a movie about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.’”
“I said, ‘Well, it’s a satire,’” Reiner told Herring. “I tried to explain, you know. But over the years, people got it, and they started to like it.”
Last year, Reiner explained that the sequel would see the fictional band forced to reunite after many years apart.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
