The cast and director of classic rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap are reuniting for a virtual table read that will be moderated by Patton Oswalt. Released in 1984, the Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride) movie starred Christopher Guest (The Princess Bride), Michael McKean (Better Call Saul) and Harry Shearer (The Simpsons) as the hapless British heavy metal band, Spinal Tap, who are followed around by documentary director Marty Di Bergi (played by Reiner) during a tour of the USA. The movie has been hailed as one of the first true mockumentaries, inspiring countless films and TV shows from The Office and Borat to Guest’s own Best In Show.

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Most of the movie’s dialogue was improvised, with Reiner having to edit down hours of footage, in the same way a regular documentary filmmaker would. Despite being hailed by critics for its sharp parody of overblown and self-congratulatory rock ‘n roll tour documentaries, the movie was a box office flop. However, after its home video release it gained a cult following, particularly among the adherents of the bands it satirized, and has been re-evaluated as a classic in the past three decades. The irony is that the cast members have actually regularly performed as Spinal Tap at real rock concerts, recreating the ham-fisted heavy metal songs written for the movie, due to the popularity of This Is Spinal Tap.

Now, THR reports that Guest, McKean, Shearer and Reiner will be getting the band back together for a virtual table read on October 14. The This Is Spinal Tap team will be joined by comic Patton Oswalt for the event. He will be taking on the role of moderator. The event will aim to raise money for the Philadelphia Democrats ahead of the November 3 General Election. Jason Henry, executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, had this to say about the event, the poster for which you can see below:

Democratic enthusiasm in Pennsylvania is already turned up to eleven — we’re the Keystone State and the key to winning this election. We’re excited to partner with the Spinal Tap team to bring even more energy to power Democratic wins from the State House to the White House.

The event is similar to one organized by Reiner with the original cast of The Princess Bride, his 1987 fantasy-comedy classic, which raised funds for the Democratic party in Wisconsin. Oswalt took the reins of the event then, too. Besides the political angle, the event is sure to be popular given the cult status of This Is Spinal Tap. The movie is packed full of classic scenes and quotes, which are often repeated verbatim by fans in both appropriate and inappropriate situations, and many are likely to tune in to watch the cast reunite.

Hopefully Oswalt will also quiz the four about the impact their movie has had on the mockumentary genre in general, as it would be equally interesting to find out what they think about their impact on other shows and films. This Is Spinal Tap was certainly groundbreaking, regardless of whether you think the humor was spot-on or not, if only for the way it brought the idea of improvisation and documentary-style comedy to the mainstream.

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Source: THR

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