Spacey to return to London stage

Spacey took up his post at the Old Vic in 2003

Kevin Spacey is returning to the stage at London's Old Vic, the theatre where he is also artistic director.

Spacey, whose Hollywood acting credits include American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, will play a film producer in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow next year.

The Old Vic's fourth season will also feature Stephen Fry's version of Cinderella at the London Theatre.

It will also include the world stage premiere of Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning film All About My Mother.

Sam Mendes, who directed Spacey in American Beauty, will direct a double bill of Shakespeare's Hamlet and The Tempest.

Almodovar directed Penelope Cruz in All about My Mother

Almodovar, whose films also include Live Flesh, Talk to Her and Volver, said it was "touching" to see All About My Mother brought to life during a workshop on Samuel Adamson's adaptation.

"The characters I had created for the film did not yield an inch of their nature, yet fitted the stage perfectly, as if it was their natural environment," he said.

"They were overflowing life in front of my eyes. I had never experienced such a thing."

It marks the first time that Almodovar has agreed to his work being produced in English for the stage.

Fry said he was excited about his panto project.

"When Kevin Spacey asked if I might consider writing a panto for the Old Vic I was about as excited as you can reasonably be at 10 in the morning in the breakfast room of a London hotel," he said.

Speed-the-Plow, a satire on deal-making in the movie business, will open in January.

The next production to open at the Old Vic will be Patrick Hamilton's Victorian thriller, Gaslight, starring Rosamund Pike and Kenneth Cranham.