‘This Is Spinal Tap’ Creators Reach Settlement On Long-Running Court Battle Over Rights And Income

Bruce Haring
·1 min read

This is Spinal Tap co-creators Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest were singing Gimme Some Money on Friday. That’s after settling a long-running dispute over money derived from the film and merchandising related to the cult classic mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap.

The group, Vivendi, and StudioCanal told a California federal court Friday that they had finally reached a settlement.

Shearer started the legal ball rolling in 2016, claiming that he and his co-creators had received just $81 in merchandising income and $98 in music sales income from their work on Spinal Tap. The so-called “Hollywood accounting” practices were blamed, plus Vivendi’s screwing up trademark rights. The suit asked for damages and requested reversion of rights to the project.

Eventually, Universal Music settled the claims to revenue from the soundtrack rights.

The parties said in a status report to the judge that they reached agreement on Thursday and are working on a final settlement agreement. The agreement purportedly will include “restructuring the parties’ relationship and modifying contracts pertaining to the picture’s distribution.”

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