EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) has acquired all international rights to Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and expanded its
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) has acquired all international rights to Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and expanded its existing rights to 1984 original This Is Spinal Tap to include all international rights outside the United States, Screen has learned.
Last month Bleecker Street announced it had acquired US rights to Rob Reiner’s mockumentary sequel and the original cult hit.
Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer reprise their lead roles as the legendary British weighty metal band and Reiner returns as documentarian Martin “Marty” DiBergi in the fresh film, which follows the rockers as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus for one final concert.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues features cameos from Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Trisha Yearwood, with appearances by Paul Shaffer, Fran Drescher, Don Lake, John Michael Higgins, Nina Conti, Griffin Matthews, Kerry Godliman, and Chris Addison. Reiner, Michele Reiner, and Matthew George are producers.
Derrick J. Rossi, Hernan Narea, Jonathan Fuhrman, Christopher H. Warner, Chad Oakes, Michael Frislev, and Frank Marshall serve as executive producers.
Sony Pictures’ EVP business affairs Virginia Longmuir and VP business development Elan Kovo negotiated the deal with John Burnham of Atlas Artists. SPWA held international free TV and AVoD rights to the original film prior to the transaction.
Bleecker Street plans a nationwide US theatrical release of a newly restored version of This Is Spinal Tap in the summer before making the film widely available on digital and streaming platforms for the first time in years, ahead of the sequel’s wide theatrical release on September 12.
This Is Spinal Tap was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002 for being “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant”.
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