Michael McKean Says ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Was Not Easy to Make
Forty years in the making, the sequel to the cult-classic film This Is Spinal Tap is finally on its way. Many of the cast members have reunited in the new movie and are reminiscing about the making of the original. Michael McKean, who plays one of the members of the fictional band Spinal Tap, David St. Hubbins, recalls just how difficult it was to get the first movie made.
He said, “It was such a struggle to get it done” and added that “there weren’t a lot of features like it at the time.” He continued, “What we had was 20 hours of film and we got it down to 85 minutes. It was a long, long chore. But once we started showing it to people and knowing that the audiences who were there for the film really dug it — it was never going to be Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters was that year. It wasn’t going to be Splash, it wasn’t going to be one of the big, big money comedies — but we also knew that the people who liked it would like it very much and would keep it alive.”
Everett Collection
Of course, fans certainly kept it alive, so much so that the calls for a sequel just couldn’t be ignored anymore. Spinal Tap II has been filming this year and stars many of the original cast members, including McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner and Fran Drescher. Reiner has estimated that the film will premiere sometime in the summer of 2025.
Joe Pugliese/TV Guide/Everett Collection
McKean teased about the sequel, “If you think those guys were sad when they were young … it’s tragic in the funniest way — hopefully.” Learn more about the sequel below, and let us know in the comments if you’ll be watching it!
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’80s Where Are They Now
March 2023
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