Kevin Spacey Comeback Bid Continues With Appearance at Venice Film Festival

Kevin Spacey Comeback Bid Continues With Appearance at Venice Film Festival

Kevin Spacey’s comeback bid rolls on with another cameo at a high-profile international film festival.

The actor is set to appear at a gala event during the Venice Film Festival in Italy, where he will present a trailer for his sci-fi thriller, Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force. The film, intended to launch a franchise, also stars Spacey alongside Dolph Lundgren, Tyrese Gibson, Brianna Hildebrand, Disha Patani, Eric Roberts, Harry Goodwins and Lado Okhotnikov.

The story centers on the conflict between two ancient supernatural factions, the Holiguards and the Statiguards, as they wage a secret war for control of humanity. Amid the conflict, a woman discovers she’s the daughter of two rival leaders, giving her the power to 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.

The event is set for Aug. 29 and is being presented in partnership with Elledgy Media Group, which confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. Expected to attend are members of the film team, including actor Goodwins and Elledgy Media Group founder Elvira Paterson-Gavrilova. The gala program also touts an appearance by an opera singer and the Georgian dance ensemble Holiguard Fire, which created a series of dance performances for the film.

“This project was both a challenge and an inspiration for us. Holiguards is a story about choice, strength, and inner conflict, told through the language of cinema,” Paterson-Gavrilova said. “As a producer, it was important for me to support an ambitious production that is not afraid to be new, complex, and honest. The entire film crew is proud that we are bringing this vision to life step by step.”

The film marks Spacey’s first directing effort in 20 years, and the subject matter seems a far cry from earlier work like 2004’s Beyond the Sea, which found him starring as “Mack the Knife” singer Bobby Darin opposite Kate Bosworth, and the 1996 crime thriller Albino Alligator starring Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway and Gary Sinise. Filming on the $10 million project Holiguards took place in Mexico in 2023-24, with post-production provided by Elledgy Media Group and Lado Film. It was developed and produced by Paterson-Gavrilova from a script by Lado Okhotnikov and Sergey Torchilin.

Spacey has been on somewhat of an international tour these past few months. In May, he touched down in Cannes, France, during the film festival to pick up an award at a gala dinner presented by the Better World Fund for excellence in film and television. The trophy was the latest in a series of awards the actor picked up as he attempts to regain a foothold in his career, which took a blow — including a 2017 firing from Netflix’s House of Cards — due to sexual misconduct allegations and legal battles. Spacey always denied all criminal charges and was found not guilty in sexual assault trials in the U.S. and the U.K.

“Who would have ever thought that honoring someone who has been exonerated in every single courtroom he’s ever walked into would be thought of as a brave idea,” Spacey said in his acceptance speech, during which he also praised his manager and “best friend,” Evan Lowenstein. He credited him with helping the actor “come out the other side of these last few challenging years not angry, not bitter, not resentful, but more present, more loving, more understanding and more forgiving than I ever have been in my life.”

Last year, he was honored with a trophy for a voice role in the 2023 U.K. action thriller Control by the Folkestone Independent Film Awards in addition to receiving Italy’s Nations Award for Lifetime Achievement at a special gala in the historic southern Sicilian town of Taormina. More recently, and after the Cannes showing that also included a stop at amfAR’s Cannes gala, Spacey has appeared at the Italian Global Series Festival and at Andrea Bocelli’s Notti Toscane event.