Kevin Spacey, a two-time Academy Award winner, hasn’t been a factor in Hollywood since multiple sexual assault allegations emerged during the Me Too movement. Not that it ended his career or anything. He simply went overseas where such charges are looked upon with considerably less scrutiny, and where filmmakers are more than happy to work with Spacey. In fact, he was just at Cannes promoting the film The Awakening, and to speak out against his “blacklisting” from Hollywood. Well, Spacey was there for another reason, too, and that was to hype his first directorial effort in two decades.
Variety reports that Spacey has directed a film tentatively titled Holiguards, an action-thriller starring Dolph Lundgren, Tyrese Gibson, Brianna Hildebrand, Disha Patani, and Eric Roberts. Quite an odd, eclectic mix of stars, really.
Here’s a synopsis for the $10M film: “Holiguards” is set against the backdrop of a near-future world fractured by hidden supernatural forces, where two ancient warrior factions — the Holiguards and the Statiguards — wage a secret war for control of humanity’s fate. Amid this conflict, a young woman discovers that she’s the daughter of two rival leaders and could end the conflict. Meanwhile, a Statiguard strategist prepares a catastrophic attack in Paris using a nuclear device and an army of mind-controlled civilians, channeling energy from a cosmic portal to awaken an ancient force known as the Prime.
Holliguards has a script by Sergey Torchilin and Lado Okhotnikov. Spacey shot it last year in Mexico, and was at Cannes showing off a trailer to potential buyers. The plan is for it to be the launch of a franchise known as “Statiguards vs. Holiguards”.
Good luck with that. If this movie does sell, it’s likely that Spacey will find interested investors someplace other than the United States. But then, one never really knows anymore. This is the third feature film directed by Spacey. He made his directorial debut with Albino Alligator in 1996, and followed that with 2004’s Beyond the Sea in which he played Bobby Darin.
