Kevin Spacey has booked another film role as the actor – who has been accused by multiple men of sexual harassment and unwanted advances – continues to sneak back into the film industry.
According to Deadline, Spacey is set to star in historical drama 1242, which is a co-production between Britain, Hungary and Mongolia. Spacey will play Cardinal Cesareani, a papal representative who arrives at the Hungarian fortress of Esztergom as Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu prepares for a final attack that could potentially pave the way for an invasion of Europe.
Filming is set to begin this October in Mongolia, with veteran Hungarian filmmaker Péter Soós directing. In addition to Spacey, the film will also star Eric Roberts and Christopher Lambert. Representatives of the film’s other stars did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Although Deadline notes that Terence Stamp was cast in the film, its reps told Rolling Stone that he was in no way involved.
While 1242 is arguably Spacey’s biggest film role since the allegations against him in 2017, it’s far from his first. Last year he collaborated with Italian director Franco Nero on The Man Who Drew God, about a blind artist who steals people from his voice and is falsely accused of sexually abusing a child (Nero starred , while Spacey was being cast). a small role as a police officer; Faye Dunaway also starred in the film). As of now, there is no official release date for The Man Who Drew God.
Spacey is also reported to have been working on a film called Peter Five Eight last year. The film is being directed by Michael Zaiko Hall, although there are currently no details on the plot or the size of Spacey’s role in the film.
Spacey is currently facing a lawsuit from Anthony Rapp, who first publicly accused Spacey of sexual misconduct in 2017. Rapp first sued Spacey in September 2020, alleging that Spacey assaulted him in a Manhattan apartment after befriending him when they both worked on Broadway. Rapp claimed a visibly intoxicated Spacey picked him up, laid him on a bed, climbed on top of him and made sexual advances before Rapp could escape. Spacey has denied the allegations.
Spacey also faced some other legal action, although not many came to fruition. In 2019, he pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and assault, which stemmed from an incident in 2016 in which he allegedly put his hand down an 18-year-old man’s pants and grabbed his genitals. However, those charges were dropped after the alleged victim denied a civil suit. Another lawsuit, filed by a John Doe, was stayed after the alleged victim’s death in September 2019.
(A few months after Doe’s death, another Spacey accuser, author and former Norwegian Royal Ari Behn, died by suicide at the age of 47. Behn had taken no legal action against Spacey.)
Rolling Stone has reached out to Rapp and others who have accused Space of sexual assault or misconduct for comment on the 1242 casting news.
After the allegation against Spacey broke in 2017, it seemed his film career was over and he would share weird vacation video messages from home every year. In the wake of the allegations, Spacey was digitally replaced by Christopher Plummer on All The Money In The World, Netflix cut him from House of Cards, and the Gore Vidal biopic in which he starred was shelved.