New York Post columnist Liz Smith reports that actor Kevin Spacey has secured film rights to Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. According to the report, director Howard Davies is linked to the project, which might run as a feature film or a film for television/cable.
Spacey's Trigger Productions could not be reached for comment. Calls to Spacey's agent at William Morris were referred to his publicist, who did not return a call by presstime.
Spacey appeared in the recent Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh which was nominated for several Tonys in 1999. The show did not actually garner those awards, the bulk of which went to Death of a Salesman. But the highly successful run lasted 102 performances -- from March 29 to June 26, with a three week extension.
According to Playbill archives, Kevin Spacey made his New York debut in Joseph Papp's 1981 Central Park production of Henry IV, Part 1. A year later he made his Broadway debut opposite Liv Ullman in Ibsen's Ghosts at this theatre. His breakthrough came as Jamie Tyrone, Jr., with Jack Lemmon in Jonathan Miller's 1986 Broadway and London production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. He won the 1991 Tony Award for his performance as Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers with Irene Worth. In addition, he appeared in Athol Fugard'sPlayland at the Manhattan Theater Club, and was seen in National Anthems at the Long Wharf Theatre directed by Arvin Brown. He most recently played Hickey in the Almeida Theatre production of The Iceman Cometh for director Howard Davies, for which he received the Olivier, London Evening Standard and London Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor.
He has been seen in the motion pictures "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Consenting Adults," "Iron Will," "The Ref," "Outbreak," "Swimming With Sharks," "Seven," "A Time to Kill," "L.A. Confidential," "Looking for Richard," "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," "The Negotiator," as the voice of Hopper in "A Bug's Life," "American Beauty" and "The Usual Suspects," for which he received an Academy Award. Spacey made his debut as a film director with the Miramax release "Albino Alligator," starring Matt Dillon and Faye Dunaway and was recently seen opposite Sean Penn in David Rabe's Hurlyburly, playing the same role he understudied in the original production of the play.
