By George Varga, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Paul McCartney, Elton John and Garth Brooks are set to appear in the sequel to “This is Spinal Tap,” the 1984 cult film classic that was the first film directed by Rob Reiner.
In a Monday interview on the podcast “RHLSTP with Richard Herring,” Reiner also disclosed that shooting for the “Spinal Tap” sequel will begin in February, He confirmed that all three of the original film’s stars — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer — will reprise their roles as the hapless members of a not-very-good English heavy-metal band called Spinal Tap.
The new Spinal Tap film will be directed by Reiner, whose other credits include helming such hit movies as “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally” and the Oscar-nominated “A Few Good Men.” Reiner will reprise his role as “Spinal Tap” film director Marty Di Bergi.
Released in 1984, “This Is Spinal Tap” was a documentary film satire — or “mockumentary” — of an ill-fated U.S. concert tour by the fictitious band Spinal Tap. In 2002 it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Songs featured in the film included “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” “Hell Hole,” “Big Bottom” and “Gimme Some Money.” The 2000 CD re-released of the album included the bonus track “Christmas with the Devil.”
“Spinal Tap was never supposed to be an incompetent band,” Shearer noted in a 2001 Union-Tribune interview.
“To us it was more a mediocre band. They could play; it was more that they made awful choices, and it was a satire of their choices. In the movie, the idea was that they’d stuck around for a depressingly long time, without ever making it or getting booted out. So if you look at it that way, they’ve been flailing away ever since.”
San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
