Spacey Set for Films 'Telstar' & 'Superman: Man of Steel'

Variety reports that Tony Award-winning actor and Old Vic Artistic Director Kevin Spacey will star in a film adaptation of Telstar, Nick Moran and James Hicks' dark comedy.

Spacey, who will also reprise his role as cold-blooded Lex Luthor in Superman: Man of Steel, will appear in the film about Joe Meek, "the gay, tone deaf songwriter-producer who produced hits including 'Have I the Right,' 'Just Like Eddie,' 'Johnny, Remember Me' and the instrumental 'Telstar.'  Con O'Neill, who played Meek on the West End in Moran and Hicks' 2005 play, will return to the part, while Spacey will appear as his financier Major Banks.  The film will have a screenplay by Moran.  It begins filming in London on Monday.  "It's exciting to be part of my first British ensemble film," stated Spacey, who was most recently seen on Broadway in A Moon for the Misbegotten.

Directed by Bryan Singer and with a screenplay by Michael Dougherty, Superman: Man of Steel - the sequel to Superman Returns - will begin production next year.  Spacey will film his role after appearing in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow at the Old Vic.  Other upcoming films on Spacey's slate include the comedy Fred Klaus and 21, in which he'll play "an MIT professor who teaches his students to count cards." 

Spacey is Artistic Director of The Old Vic Theatre Company. In addition to A Moon for the Misbegotten, he has performed in three other productions at The Old Vic since 2004: National Anthems, The Philadelphia Story and Trevor Nunn's production of Richard II, for which he was awarded the Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Actor and Theatregoer Award for Best Actor. Other theatre credits include The Iceman Cometh (Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for Best Actor, and Tony Award nomination), Lost in Yonkers (Tony Award, Best Supporting Actor), Long Day's Journey Into Night with Jack Lemmon in the West End and on Broadway, and The Seagull at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. Extensive film credits include The Usual Suspects (Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor), American Beauty (Academy and BAFTA Awards, Best Actor), Swimming with Sharks, Se7en, LA Confidential, Glengarry Glen Ross and Beyond the Sea, which he also produced and directed.

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