Two rockers are turning it up to 11! Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich will be making cameos in the upcoming sequel of the 1984 cult classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.
According to Deadline, Fran Drescher will also be reprising her role as publicist Bobbi Flekman. The cast is additionally set to include Don Lake, John Michael Higgins, Jason Acuña, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, Chris Addison, Brad Williams and Paul Shaffer — though their roles, in addition to Smith and Ulrich’s, have not yet been confirmed.
Production for the Rob Reiner-directed is currently underway with original stars/writers Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel), Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) reprising their roles as the hapless metal band who once lost a drummer in a “bizarre gardening accident.”
The original film — in which most of the dialogue was improvised — follows the rockers on a 1982 U.S. tour to promote their Smell the Glove album. Though the film did modest box office at the time, it has since blossomed into a must-see with a cult following, even making it onto the Library of Congress’ list of culturally significant artifacts.
Reiner is also set to return to the screen to revisit his role as documentarian Martin “Marty” Di Bergi. In an interview with Deadline last year, the director hinted at the sequel. “I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, ‘why don’t you do another one?,’” Reiner said of the idea to revisit the film for its 40th anniversary. “For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story.”
At the time, Reiner said the second Tap would follow the band after a long break. “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, [actor] 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.”
