Kevin Spacey’s new film premiered at AMC Fashion District, after Philadelphia Film Society canceled screening
Kevin Spacey, who stars in the indie thriller 'Peter Five Eight,' attended the film's premiere and cocktail reception.
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Peter Five Eight, a new indie thriller starring Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey, was set to premiere at the Philadelphia Film Center on Thursday, with a post-screening reception with Spacey in attendance. However, the Philadelphia Film Society canceled, claiming that advertising inaccurately portrayed the event as a public premiere, instead of a private screening as initially agreed upon.
This prompted the film’s distribution company, the Montgomery County-based Invincible Entertainment, to find a new location on short notice.
“Once it looked like it was public, it did not align with what we do and with our values, and we wanted no association with that,” Philadelphia Film Society CEO J. Andrew Greenblatt said to The Inquirer last week, after his organization canceled the screening on March 14. A point of contention was the attendance of Spacey, who was accused of sexual misconduct by more than 30 people in 2017 and acquitted of sexual assault charges in the U.K. last year.
Just days before the planned event, Invincible Entertainment head Tom Ashley picked AMC Fashion District for the film’s premiere screening. The Art Institute of Philadelphia alum, whose company is releasing Peter Five Eight, said there was no need for additional advertisement despite the last-minute switch.
Instead of the 500-seat Philadelphia Film Center, the AMC theater seated around 100 attendees. “We had to tell people they couldn’t join because the theater just didn’t have that kind of capacity,” he said. All the seats were filled, he added.
Tyler said the screening saw a “gracious” turnout, with the distribution team and Spacey enjoying the film’s positive reception. After the premiere, Spacey attended a private cocktail reception held at Midnight & the Wicked.
Despite the initial cancelation, Ashley said there’s no bad blood between Invincible Entertainment and PFS and that he respects the nonprofit’s decision. “We are big supporters of the Philadelphia Film Society, and we always will be. PFS did what they thought was best for the organization. We respect that decision.”