This Friday, the loudest rock band in historical past returns to the large display with “Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues.” A sequel to the 1984 traditional mockumentary “That is Spinal Faucet,” “Spinal Faucet II” reunites director Rob Reiner with the solid of the primary movie (Christopher Visitor, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer), who share writing and producing credit with Reiner on a narrative about how Spinal Faucet reunites after a long time aside for one final farewell live performance.
Followers have requested for a sequel for years, however it wasn’t one thing Reiner took critically.
“We by no means needed to do a sequel,” Reiner instructed IndieWire on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “We felt we had executed it, it’s executed.” Even after Reiner and the solid regained management of the unique movie and its underlying materials because of a lawsuit filed by Shearer, they nonetheless weren’t positive if a sequel was a good suggestion.
“We bought collectively and mentioned nah, we’ve executed it. The bar’s too excessive. We don’t need to do that.”
Step by step, nonetheless, the concept of seeing what the band had been as much as within the intervening years turned irresistible, particularly as Reiner talked along with his outdated cohorts and remembered how a lot enjoyable that they had collaborating. “It’s enjoyable if you’re with people who find themselves like-minded and see the world equally,” he mentioned, including that the actors have at all times cherished taking part in music collectively — they continued to carry out and tour as Spinal Faucet for many years after the unique movie’s launch.
After they got here collectively for “Spinal Faucet II,” nonetheless, it had been 15 years since they performed collectively, similar to the band within the film. That premise was sufficient to get Reiner began, though the movie lacked the private engine of a film like “Distress” (which was about Reiner’s personal frustrations at how his business considered him) or “Stand by Me” (which tapped into his relationship along with his father).
“As a result of a satire, it’s not an extension of my life,” Reiner mentioned, although upon reflection, he did discover one parallel. “Oddly sufficient, I used to be at all times one in all 4 guys at totally different factors in my life. In highschool, it was me and Albert Brooks and Larry Bishop and Richard Dreyfuss. So the concept of being one in all 4 at all times felt snug.”
Reiner basically adopted the identical methodology as the primary movie, through which he tried to recreate the circumstances of a documentary as intently as doable; whereas he and the actors mapped out a construction, all the dialogue was improvised, and nobody was anticipated to hit marks or adhere to a set plan. “I’d inform the cameramen, ‘You possibly can’t make a mistake,’” Reiner mentioned. “‘In the event you see the opposite man within the shot, that’s wonderful. Don’t really feel like it’s a must to get out of the way in which, simply shoot what’s taking place. Simply comply with your instincts.’”
Since making the unique movie, Reiner made a wonderful “actual” documentary of his personal, the HBO movie “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.” But he mentioned that have didn’t actually inform his method to “Spinal Faucet II,” as a result of the entire movie is meant to be made out of the attitude of the fictional Marty DiBergi, a director Reiner performed within the first movie as a riff on Martin Scorsese’s onscreen persona in “The Final Waltz.” DiBergi has returned for “Spinal Faucet II,” and so has his behind-the-camera sensibility.
“I’ve to filter every little thing by what Marty DiBergi would do,” Reiner mentioned. “It’s not essentially what I’d do. My feeling was that Marty hasn’t grown all that a lot, similar to the band hasn’t grown emotionally or musically. Marty has totally different instruments as a result of now he has digital cameras, however it’s not like he abruptly turned a genius about filmmaking.”
Whereas the general fashion hasn’t modified, the know-how did allow Reiner to maneuver sooner and seize improvisation on the fly extra simply than when he was taking pictures on celluloid in 1984. “You don’t should put in a brand new magazine each 10 minutes,” he mentioned. “You’ve bought a chip that lasts an hour, and I had two cameras as an alternative of 1.” Reiner would sometimes inform his crew to start out rolling even earlier than the actors arrived on set, simply in order that they might seize their entrances and choose up something humorous that may occur.
The unique “Spinal Faucet” started Reiner’s profession as a function movie director, and nobody — together with Reiner himself — would have predicted from that modest comedy that he would go on to direct every little thing from sweeping status dramas (“A Few Good Males,” “Ghosts of Mississippi”) and fairy tales (“The Princess Bride”) to horror (“Distress”) and romantic comedy (“When Harry Met Sally…”). Despite all that have, Reiner mentioned that when he returned to the world of Spinal Faucet, it felt precisely the identical because it had in 1984.
“It’s like being with pals that you just haven’t seen in a very long time,” Reiner mentioned. “You choose up proper the place you left off. It’s like working with nice jazz musicians, you don’t have to inform them what to do. They hear the beat, they hear the drums, and so they simply fall in. That’s the way in which it was with us — it’s like no time glided by.”
“Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues” opens in theaters on September 12 from Bleecker Road. To be sure to don’t miss Rob Reiner’s upcoming episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.