Originally published at: Another Spinal Tap movie is in the works | Boing Boing
…
2 Likes
They’ll need a drummer, the last one expired.
25 Likes
Or as they call it on the tour bus, “Wednesday”.
14 Likes
Is a sequel for this necessary? If they can make the follow up just as funny I’ll watch it, but i think they nailed it the first time around
21 Likes
I love Spinal Tap. I can quote most of the movie, and I saw them perform live twice. But I don’t think a sequel is necessary at this point. The actors are all in their 70’s now and metal stopped being a cultural force around the time that Nirvana released Nevermind. The stuff they satirized in the original movie is no longer relevant. Can they come up with something that will resonate with audiences today? Will the movie have them playing the nostalgia circuit at casinos and state fairs? Will one of them have a reality show ala The Osbornes (which went off the air 17 years ago, BTW)? I think jokes about an aging heavy metal band will have limited appeal today.
5 Likes
There’s always some nostalgia to ride on, and a segment of the population (myself included, maybe?) who will at least check out the trailer. Spending time with characters who are old dummies and laughing can be fun.
ETA context, I don’t think the performers are dummies at all!
3 Likes
Probably has something to do with it…
Shearer sued back in 2016 with the headline-making allegation that despite decades of cult success, the creatives had just $81 in merchandising income and $98 in musical sales income to show for their work on the 1984 rockumentary. They alleged “Hollywood accounting” sins, Vivendi bungling trademark rights, and more. The four demanded hundreds of millions in damages plus hoped to reclaim Spinal Tap by exercising termination rights under the Copyright Act.
12 Likes
“They’ve played Albert Hall, played Wembley Stadium, all over the country and in Europe,” Reiner said. “They haven’t spent any time together recently, and that became the premise. The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra passed away. 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.”
“I’m back playing Marty DiBergi,” he 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. When I heard they might get back together, I was a visiting adjunct teacher’s helper at the Ed Wood School of Cinematic Arts. I drop everything to document this final concert.”
16 Likes
this is my knee-jerk thought, too. how can it even work, and be funny? but then i consider how completely smart and funny everyone involved is, and i think maybe i’ll just have to wait and see.
9 Likes
It’s hard to pick a favorite from their second album, what with ■■■■■ School and The Sun Never Sweats, but I’ll put this one here:
5 Likes
I love the guys playing Spinal Tap but those actors doing their opening act The Folksmen leave a lot to be desired.
6 Likes
One of my all-time favorite movies. A friend in high school raved that it was hilarious, but I was reluctant to watch it. I laughed my ass off!
Metal may not be relevant to younger audiences, but while I did love the songs in the original film, it was the characters, dialog and situations that made me love the film. Folk music wasn’t my bag but A Mighty Wind was a fun movie, too, so just because you don’t love a music genre doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the movie.
My prediction for the title: “This is Spinal Tap 11: That was Spinal Tap”
7 Likes
You have three comedy heavyweights with a penchant for improvising on camera and a long history of playing off each other. You can put them in any setting and it will be great.
9 Likes
That’s my hope for this. While it played off of Metal tropes, at the heart of it was a band that clearly would ride whatever pop wave was descendant. Having seen ads over recent years for enormous 80s bands playing the shittiest local casino room I think there’s plenty of room for a contemporary take.
8 Likes
One of the DVD releases had a track of them in character watching the movie and defending their actions. I hope the new movie will be better than that, but I doubt it.
3 Likes
One of the central themes for Spinal Tap is that they’ve been “has-beens” for pretty much their entire careers, so the setup still works.
17 Likes
5 Likes
While the actors/musicians are funny, I worry about the presence of Rob Reiner. While he was a co-writer of the original (along with Guest, McKean, and Shearer), nearly everything he’s done in the past 25 years has been a critical and commercial flop and all the Christopher Guest mockumentaries after this like Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind were done without Reiner’s input.
1 Like
A lot of what they satirized was already irrelevant when they made the film in 1984. Still funny:
13 Likes
I actually hope that this is the core of the joke, the exploitation of nostalgia. It’s a rich field that is ripe for being satirized. Much like how companies like Netflix are hungry for “edgy” documentaries and will beat any dead horse. Things like that.
3 Likes
