Trivia / Beyond the Sea

• Box Office Bomb: It made only eight million dollars compared to a budget of twenty-five million.
• Dawson Casting: In one of the most egregious examples, Kevin Spacey played Bobby Darin throughout his adult life. To put it in perspective, Spacey was older than Darin was when he died (Spacey was 44 during filming, Darin died at 37).
• Star-Derailing Role: This film's failure, coming after a long string of poorly received and unsuccessful films, put an end to Kevin Spacey's post-Academy Award success and time as a leading man in major studio films. He would continue playing supporting roles in big films or leading roles in small films and had a brief comeback as a leading man before a series of sexual harassment and assault allegations in 2017 put a definitive end to his career.
• What Could Have Been:
  • As early as 1986, Barry Levinson intended to direct a film based on the life of Darin, and he began pre-production on the project in early 1997 under the title Dreamer. When he eventually vacated the director's position in favor of directing Liberty Heights (1999), Spacey, along with Darin's son Dodd, acquired the film rights.
  • Levinson's version had Johnny Depp as Bobby Darin, Drew Barrymore as Sandra Dee, Bette Midler as Darin's birth mother Nina and Bruno Kirby as Nina's husband/Darin's right-hand man, Charlie.
  • After Spacey came aboard, Cathy Moriarty and Vanessa Redgrave were originally cast, but both actresses dropped out for unspecified reasons.

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