Filmmaker Rob Reiner has given an update on how the sequel to the iconic mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap” is progressing. The film sees England’s sauciest heavy metal band – David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) – all return along with Reiner himself as the documentarian Martin ‘Marty’ Di Bergi.
Reiner began filming the project in February in New Orleans and from the sounds of it he’s not only nearly done but will have an early cut of the film ready to show off next month. Speaking with , he says it’s all progressing well: “It’s going good. Our first screening for our family and friends will be probably in August.
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.” In the film, the band’s manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) has passed away and his widow inherits a contract that says Spinal Tap owed them one more concert and she will sue them if they don’t do it. As a result the band, which hasn’t spent any time together recently, are thrown back together and are forced to deal with each other and play the concert.
The original was released to critical acclaim in 1984 and is one of the few selected for preservation by the National Film Registry..