Beyond the Sea (film) west conducted arbitration through the scripts that had been written since Barry Levinson developed the film at Warner Bros. in 1987. Lewis Colick, James Toback and Tom Epperson disassociated themselves for credit by the WGA. The Guild justified credit to Lewis Colick, who wrote the first draft of "The Bobby Darin Story" in 1987, and Kevin Spacey. Actor-writer Jeffrey Meek believed he should have deserved credit; he was paid $85,000 of a promised $125,000 to settle his claim to have performed writing services. Spacey said Meek was "not a hired writer" on "Beyond the Sea". "He turned in a draft,
Kevin Spacey of Uncle Louie in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "Lost in Yonkers". Spacey's father was unconvinced that Spacey could make a career for himself as an actor, and did not change his mind until Spacey became well-known. Some of Spacey's early roles include a widowed, eccentric millionaire on "L.A. Law", the television miniseries "The Murder of Mary Phagan" (1988), opposite Lemmon, and the comedy "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" (1989). He earned a fan base after playing the criminally insane arms dealer Mel Profitt on the television series "Wiseguy". He quickly developed a reputation as a character actor, and was