Chad Oakes did not hesitate when asked if he wanted to get involved in the sequel to 1984’s This is Spinal Tap.
It probably helped that the offer was coming from Rob Reiner himself, the director and one of the stars of both the original film and Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which opens on Sept. 12 in theatres. Oakes says the original film is his favourite comedy.
“Some of my top 20 films of all time are Rob Reiner films,” said Oakes, who is co-founder and co-chair of Calgary’s Nomadic Pictures with Mike Frislev. “A Few Good Men, Stand by Me, the Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally. To sit down and listen to how they did (the first) Spinal Tap and what the budget was and how Norman Lear was involved . . . Rob is one of the living legends in our business and such a great leader. To see him and the boys on set and see them have fun kind of renewed my faith in the film business. Because, remember, it is a business. You can talk about it creatively, but it is technically a business. It’s a financial business. Without the business and money side there are no movies.”
Oakes and Frislev, who are executive producers of the film, were involved in the money side of the production. They set up a Calgary-based private film equity company called Arctic Palm Film Capital with other local investors to help finance the film. Nomadic Pictures, a 30-year-old company that began in Calgary, handled the tax inventives that available from Louisiana for the film. Spinal Tap II was filmed in New Orleans in January and February of this year.
At the time of this interview, Oakes and Frislev were set to fly to Los Angeles for the Tuesday night red carpet premiere of the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. This is Spinal Tap was Reiner’s debut as a director. It was shot as a faux documentary — or mockumentary as the subgenre is now commonly known — and follows an aging British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap on their disastrous final tour. It was co-created by Reiner and Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. Reiner plays filmmaker Marty Di Bergi, Guest plays guitarist Nigel Tufnel, McKean played singer-guitarist David St. Hubbins and Shearer played bassist Derek Smalls. All returned for the sequel.
The original film was not a hit upon its 1984 release. Like many, Oakes didn’t see it until a few years later on VHS. But it has since become a cult classic deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. While the mockumentary genre is now fairly commonplace with TV shows such as Modern Family and The Office and Guest’s series of films including Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and The Mighty Wind.
While the actors have reunited for tours and specials and even albums, this is the first official sequel to the film. Spinal Tap II centres of the band’s farewell concert in New Orleans 15 years after a mysterious falling out between childhood friends Tufnel and St. Hubbins. It follows the band’s rehearsals and preparations and features a number of high-profile cameos, including appearances by Paul McCartney and Elton John.
“It was great to be invited to participate and carry our own weight and to be financially and meaningfully involved was an honour,” Oakes says. “I mean, come on, to meet Paul McCartney and to meet Elton John, it doesn’t get any better in my world.”
Oakes and Frislev met Reiner and other principals of his production company Castle Rock Entertainment while working on the film Wind River:The Next Chapter, the Alberta-shot sequel to the 2017 neo-Western Wind River. Reiner, Oakes and Frislev were among the executive producers of the sequel, which wrapped in 2023 and has yet to be released.
Formed 30 years ago in Calgary, Nomadic Pictures has maintained a busy schedule in the past few years, co-producing the Greece-shot American Biblical series House of David for Amazon Prime and the Canadian superhero series The Imperfect and the first two seasons of the Calgary-based hit My Life With the Walter Boys, both for Netflix. The company has also co-produced films such as Land and The Thicket. Oakes and Frislev were the Calgary producers behind the first three seasons of the multiple Emmy-winning series Fargo and for AMC’s western Hell on Wheels.
Oakes says Nomadic Pictures did $190-million in production last year.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hits theatres Sept. 12.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com ’
