It’s been more than 40 years since Rob Reiner debuted in cinema with the rock mockumentary comedy This is Spinal Tap. The original film focused on a famous rock band’s meltdown after rising to fame, as told from the perspective of its over-the-top and hilarious members. After decades of fans pleading for a sequel, Reiner has decided to reunite Spinal Tap. Enough time has passed for new anecdotes to be included in the mockumentary sequel. However, the director has revealed that he was inspired to make it after witnessing another major cultural phenomenon: the resurgence of singer Kate Bush after her best song was heavily featured in the Netflix series Stranger Things.
As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Reiner talked about getting the band back together years after the last time they were on stage together. Reiner is known for being an opponent to sequels: “Over the years, people kept saying, ‘You should do a sequel. Do a sequel.’ And we said, ‘No, we’ve done it. We’ve done it. This should sit by itself.’ However, the sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues became an actual project that will be released in September 2025. Reiner says:
“There’s a reason why Timeout Magazine rated it as the number one comedy of all time. So you can’t go better than that. But this one does. It works, it satisfies it, and it works…. Listen, the purists are going to say, ‘Hey, shut your mouth. Get out of here.’ But it works. It does work.”
Related
These Are 10 of the Best Mockumentaries
Mockumentaries make up a difficult niche to master, but these five fun films occupy that cinematic space well.
Per Reiner’s statement, he drew some inspiration from a modern pop culture icon. ’80s singer Kate Bush saw her popularity suddenly grow when the song “Running Up That Hill” was featured in Stranger Things, something Reiner used as the starting point for the long-awaited sequel:
“We got to get some rockstar to sing one of their songs, like joking around at a soundcheck and somebody captures it on iPhone, puts it up on, puts it up on TikTok, it goes viral, and all of a sudden, ‘Hey, Spinal Tap.’ So that became the basis of what we did.”
Reiner also attributes the decision to the possibility of making any money from the comedy franchise: “Harry Shearer [Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls], God love him. He was really upset that over the years he’d been on video and DVDs and foreign sales, and we made nothing. We never got a cent. I mean, literally, I’m not exaggerating. It sounds like a joke. We each got 82 cents to split 40 percent of the profits. And Harry said, ‘I think that’s creative counting taken a little bit too far.’ And so he sued to get the rights back.” The director also talked about the plot stemming from a contract the band didn’t know existed, and it brings them out of retirement:
“It’s worthless because nobody has seen them play in 15 years. Now, they’re forced into being pushed back together. And we created this situation where there’s bad blood, they haven’t talked to each other, and you find out in the course of the film what that bad blood is about.”
‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Is Arguably One of the Best Mockumentaries Ever Made
The mockumentary genre is mostly known for its implementation in comedy television, with sitcoms like Modern Family and The Office being successful examples of the highly effective narrative style. With the arrival of the found footage format, the use of mockumentary narratives also became popular in horror, with The Poughkeepsie Tapes and Megan Is Missing standing among the most popular.
Early displays of mockumentary narratives include the Luis Buñuel feature Land Without Bread and Peter Watkins’ chilling feature The War Game. However, Reiner’s 1984 film was a game-changer in making the format more popular in comedy. This Is Spinal Tap went all in, displaying its subjects as cartoonish versions of pop culture icons that became prominent in the 1980s, the rock artists defined more by glamour than musical talent. The film was so successful that the fictional band eventually decided they could become something more… real. Spinal Tap released albums, went on tour, and soon they will be the subject of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Time to take those amps up to eleven!
Source: Entertainment Weekly
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
