Ric Parnell, ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Drummer, Dies at 70

CANNES, France -- One of the most memorable lines — and Rob Reiner's personal favorite — of “This Is Spinal Tap” goes: “There’s a fine line between stupid and clever.”You could say the same thing about the classic 1984 mockumentary. It could have so easily not panned out. No one in Hollywood thought it was a good idea.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaRob Reiner is getting the band back together.Four decades after introducing audiences to Spinal Tap, a British heavy metal band with big hair that far outweighs their actual talent, Reiner and his comic collaborators Michael McKean (as guitarist David St. Hubbins), Harry Shearer (bassist Derek Smalls) and Christopher Guest (lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel) are returning to the scene of the musical crime with “Spinal Tap II.” Reiner, who directs and co-stars in the film as documentary-maker Marty DiBergi, is hitting the Cannes Film Festival to round up backing for the sequel and to present a special screening of the 1984 original “This is Spinal Tap” as part of the Cinema de la Plage sidebar on Wednesday.

EXCLUSIVE: Simon Rex (Red Rocket) will join Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie in The Batman star Zoë Kravitz’s feature directorial debut, Pussy Island, for MGM.

Fresh with an injection of $170 million in Castle Rock financing with a lead investment from Derrick Rossi — the stem cell biologist who is co-founder of the Moderna vaccine — Rob Reiner is here at the Cannes Market for a myriad of reasons. One of them is to shoot Sharon Stone in Cannes this week, as part of the documentary film Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.

Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at age 21 after getting surgery for fat removal.The actress was reportedly admitted to hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka on Monday for fat removal surgery but later died from complications from the operation.The star is said to have suffered from a cardiac arrest after her lungs filled with fluid, according to local news outlets. Chethana is understood to have been moved from the cosmetic hospital to an ICU unit following the complications. However when she arrived, she was reportedly unresponsive and without a pulse.

Indian TV star Chethana Raj has died at the age of 21 after having fat removal surgery. The actress was reportedly admitted into a private plastic surgery hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on Monday, but is said to have developed complications as fluid began to accumulated in her lungs. She later died of a cardiac arrest, after being rushed to another hospital where doctors were unsuccessful in reviving her through CPR.

EXCLUSIVE: The Cannes Market package for the sequel to the famed rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap is a bigger deal than I originally reported when Deadline broke the story. I’ve learned that CAA Media Finance will also be selling rights to the original film as well. The filmmakers hope that both films will be available on the same platform/distributor. The rights only recently came back to them recently, and it has only selectively been available for purchase.

The band is getting back together. A sequel is in the works to the 1984 rock mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap," with director Rob Reiner returning alongside stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. The movie package will launch sales at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Tim Blake Nelson, Uzo Aduba, Simon Rex, Nina Arianda, Jim Gaffigan, José María Yazpik and Joey Lauren Adams have rounded out the cast of, Providence, a comedy from Dylan Sellers and Chris Parker’s Limelight and David Boies and Zack Schiller’s Boies Schiller Entertainment. Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Himesh Patel are set to star with Potsy Ponciroli directing. Michael Vukadinovich penned the script. Limelight and BSE will fully finance and produce, along with Shannon Houchins’ Hideout Pictures.

Spinal Tap II, a direct sequel to legendary rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, has been announced.The 1984 film, which produced numerous quotable scenes – including exploding drummers, “it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever” and amps that “go up to 11″ – will now see its 40th anniversary marked with more tales of rock cliché and questionable song titles.Reiner will direct the sequel and return as filmmaker Marty DiBergi, while David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) also return to perform as the brash English band.“The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, ‘Why don’t you do another one?'” Reiner told Deadline following the announcement.“For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this.

Get ready to turn the volume back up to 11!

While it may seem like an idea two or three decades too late, the gang from “This Is Spinal Tap” are reuniting for an encore, turning it up to 11 one more time. That’s right, the entire original gang, director Rob Reiner, and writers and cast members David St.

Ready to rock?Castle Rock Entertainment, Rob Reiner’s company that recently re-launched its film division after going somewhat dormant, is back and with a big new project to shop around the Cannes Film Festival: “Spinal Tap II,” a sequel to 1984’s immortal comedy classic “This is Spinal Tap.” And what’s more – everybody is back, including Reiner (as director and in the film as Marty DiBergi), Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest, sources with knowledge confirm to TheWrap.No plot details for “Spinal Tap 2” have been revealed but it’ll undoubtedly be another faux documentary chronicling the sunset years of England’s most controversial rock band and navigating a very different pop culture landscape. (If you thought “Smell the Glove” was offensive back then!)The package should generate a lot of interest at Cannes, especially since they are showing the original film on the beach as part of the Cinema de la Plage sidebar on Wednesday, May 18.

Jordan Moreau The band is getting back together.A sequel to the 1984 rock mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” is in the works, with director Rob Reiner returning alongside stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer.The movie package will launch sales at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It will be released on March, 19 2024, tied to the 40th anniversary of the original.

EXCLUSIVE: After relaunching its film division last October, Castle Rock Entertainment has set a first project out of the gate that will have a familiar ring. It’s Spinal Tap II, a sequel to the fabled rock mockumentary that set the film company on a run of hits, many of them directed by Rob Reiner. He made his directorial debut on the 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap.

Could Robert Eggers‘ “The Northman” release have sparked renewed interest in revisiting “Hamlet”? The Viking epic is based on the original Scandinavian tale that directly influenced Williams Shakespeare’s beloved story of revenge and murder. Now, a new modern film version of “Hamlet” is on the horizon from Oscar-winners Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia.

Riz Ahmed is set to lead a modern adaptation of Hamlet.The actor will be teaming up with Aneil Karia, his collaborator on the Oscar-winning The Long Goodbye, for the new film.Ahmed will play the titular role and will see Hamlet “move through London’s elite circles and attend exuberant parties, going to violent lengths to avenge his father and prove his uncle guilty” according to Deadline.Karia will direct the film, from a script by Macbeth writer Michael Lesslie. Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) has been cast as Ophelia, while Joe Alwyn (Conversations With Friends) will play Laertes.“This is a Hamlet about race, privilege, corruption – and whether setting things right means setting fire to the entire old order,” Ahmed and Karia said in a statement obtained by the publication.“This Hamlet belongs to a wealthy British Indian family who buy their way up the English establishment at great personal cost.

FilmNation is behind some hot packages at the Cannes Market this year with projects that include the noir thriller “Knox Goes Away” which has Michael Keaton (“Birdman“) set to star/direct, the Woody Harrelson thriller “Last Breath,” and the new supernatural film “The Shrouds” from David Cronenberg. Their latest offering going to auction comes from producer Cate Blanchett and is the English-language debut of Greek director Christos Nikou (“Apples“).

Naman Ramachandran Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia are teaming again for a modern, London-set British Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”The pair won the 2022 best live action short film Oscar for “The Long Goodbye,” which they co-wrote, Ahmed starred in and Karia directed. WME Independent will launch international sales at the Cannes Film Market, while co-representing North American rights with CAA.