Spinal Tap Drummer Ric Parnell, a.k.a. ‘Mick Shrimpton,’ 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.

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.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorMy Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Future, and Jack White will headline the 2022 edition of Music Midtown, which will also feature performances from Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Phoenix, Turnstile, Louis The Child, A Day To Remember, 2 Chainz, Quinn XCII, Conan Gray, Denzel Curry and many more. The full lineup appears below.Over 30 artists, four stages and two full days of music will take place September 17-18 at Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta. Two-day tickets go on sale Friday, May 20 at 10am ET via www.musicmidtown.com, with Layaway Plans starting at $19 down.“Over twenty-five years strong, Music Midtown remains a monumental music festival that brings a diverse lineup of the biggest names in music year-after-year, while giving back to the city that I proudly call home.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorHarry Styles’ “One Night Only in New York” concert at UBS Arena at Belmont Park this Friday — May 20 — will be available to stream exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in 167 countries around the world, the company has announced.The concert will celebrate his new album “Harry’s House,” which drops that day, “and will see Harry performing songs from the album for the first time ever,” according to the announcement. All tickets for the show were $25 all-in, including taxes and fees, although they are currently going for thousands of dollars on the secondary ticket market.The concert will be available to stream live on Apple Music at 9:00p EST / 6p PST on Friday, May 20th HERE and will encore on May 22nd at 12:00p EST / 9:00a PT / 6:00p CET and on May 26th at 4pm BST / 5pm SGT / 7pm AEST.

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.

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.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorBob Dylan’s share of the Traveling Wilburys has been acquired by Primary Wave Music — an asset that most people probably did not realize was not included in the Nobel Prize-winning artist’s nine-figure deals with Universal Music Publishing and Sony Music.Dylan’s master royalties and neighboring rights royalties for both of the group’s albums, as well as a 2007 box set, are included in the deal. Terms were not disclosed.The Wilburys were a supergroup comprised of Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison, and released two albums filled with lighthearted, not-too-serious songs in contrast to their usually weighty work.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorRepublic Records has announced the promotion of Chris Blackwell to EVP of A&R and Content Strategy, as announced today by label president Wendy Goldstein.According to the announcement, in this new role, Blackwell will continue to shepherd the creation and development of content for the entire Republic Records roster. Additionally, he will work with new artists to identify and maximize content opportunities at the onset of their careers. Blackwell played a major role in Coi Leray’s rise by producing her viral “Cooking With Coi Leray,” and also collaborated with Ka$hdami, Lil Wayne, Benee and Kash Doll on upcoming programming.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorUniversal Music’s share of Todd Moscowitz’s Alamo Records was acquired by Sony Music Entertainment for around $125 million, with a total purchase of between $188 million and $225 million, according to Universal’s recent earnings report and an educated estimate by Music Business Worldwide published Thursday.The company, which was founded as a joint venture with Universal Music Group by the former 300, Warner Music and Def Jam exec in 2016, has been on a hot streak in recent years with Blackbear, Lil Durk and Rod Wave. Sources told Variety at the time that there was a buy/sell negotiation in the months leading up and UMG opted to walk away.While some sources at the time of the June 2021 deal put the sale price at $250 million, MBW spied an item in Universal Music Group‘s recently-issued annual fiscal report stating that Sony Music paid €102 million (around $123 million, which MBW rounded up to $125 million) to buy UMG’s interest in Alamo, which was presumably 50%, with Moscowitz owning the other half.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorLos Angeles-based Saudi-Arabian/American singer-rapper-producer $kinny has released his new album, “Have a Nice Trip,” which was executive produced by Swizz Beatz, on Universal Arabic Music.The album features his new single “Salam” with Swizz Beatz and French Montana, the video for which also dropped today (pictured above at the video shoot, L-R, are Swizz, UAM CEO Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, $kinny and Montana).$kinny grew up in Los Angeles as the child of an American mom and Saudi-Arabian dad, and his music is germane to both cultures. Swizz Beatz has been spending a lot of time in the Middle East in recent years, and the match was easy.“It’s crazy, Swizz and I made ‘Salam’ the day we met,” $kinny tells Variety.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorR&B star and former Fifth Harmony member Normani has inked a global publishing deal with Hipgnosis Songs Group — but the most eye-grabbing news in the announcement comes toward the end: “Normani has confirmed new music and a larger body of work is on the way.”Fans have been impatiently awaiting new material from the singer for years, and the announcement of a publishing deal often means (although does not guarantee) that its release is relatively imminent. She was named Collaborator of the Year at Variety‘s Hitmakers event in December.The deal includes all of the future works by Normani, a six-time BMI Award winning songwriter.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSwedish pop innovator Tove Lo returns with a new song and video called “No One Dies From Love,” released on her own, newly launched Pretty Swede label through mtheory. The song was co-written with longtime collaborator Ludvig Söderberg.“When you’re with someone for a long time and it ends all of all sudden, it’s like a part of you has died,” Lo says of the song.