Rob Ashford staging the musical numbers for the Bobby Darin biopic "Beyond the Sea" starring Kevin Spacey, Seth MacFarlane's "A Million Ways to Die in the West" and "Ted 2", and the Disney film "Cinderella" directed by Kenneth Branagh. For television, Ashford has choreographed tributes to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Hermann, Meryl Streep, Barbara Cook, Shirley MacLaine, and Tom Hanks for The Kennedy Center Honors. He was the choreographer for the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007 and 2009, and also a co-producer for 2011, 2012 and 2014. He collaborated with filmmaker Baz Luhrmann on a production number featuring Hugh Jackman
Beyond the Sea (film) in films like "Pay It Forward", "K-PAX" and "The Shipping News". The actor was criticized for his career move; Spacey acknowledged the similarities when Darin integrated into folk music and protest songs. In February 2003, it was announced that production for "Beyond the Sea" was becoming fast tracked with Spacey as lead actor, co-writer, producer and director, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) agreed to cover distribution duties in North America. The following August, with principal photography to begin in just weeks, MGM dropped out as distributor and main financier over scheduling conflicts. To accumulate financing of the film's $25 million budget, which