Kevin Spacey’s stage poser gets some tweetwise responses

The Arts Diary

Kevin Spacey in Richard III (GERAINT LEWIS)

Kevin Spacey found an inspired use for Twitter. Last weekend, he asked his followers: “What book or movie do you guys think should be made into a stage production?”

An endless ream of suggestions followed. Few would fail to see how this might be a very handy question to ask, given his role as artistic director of the Old Vic. In response, he got some pointless flattery (“whatever you make will be brilliant”), some distinctly leftfield answers – “ Kevin Spacey the Musical” – but also some innovative thoughts: Working Girl, Lowry’s Under the Volcano, Sally Potter’s Yes, Withnail & I, The Surrogate (a book about a disabled man and a sex surrogate which was recently adapted to film as The Sessions).

With 118 retweets and 85 favourites, it’s a fantastically cheap way of having crowdsourcing, or having a creative brainstorming session with your fans. Let’s wait and see if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory makes it onto the boards.