Kevin Spacey It Forward" (2000), a patient in a mental institution who may or may not be an alien in "K-Pax" (2001), and singer Bobby Darin in "Beyond the Sea" (2004). The latter was a lifelong dream project for Spacey, who took on co-writing, directing, co-producing and starring duties in the biography/musical about Darin's life, career and relationship with actress Sandra Dee. Facing little interest for backing in the United States, Spacey went to the United Kingdom and Germany for funding. Almost all of the film was made in Berlin. Spacey provided his own vocals on the "Beyond the Sea" soundtrack and
Beyond the Sea (film) came from foreign production companies, Spacey performed six songs at the November 2003 American Film Market. Lions Gate Entertainment quickly picked up the distribution duties and Spacey found enough investors from England and Germany to continue to move forward on production. In addition, Spacey declined to be paid for his work as actor, director, co-writer and producer on "Beyond the Sea". A portion of the $25 million budget came from his own Trigger Street Productions. Producer Arthur Friedman, who had shepherded the biopic since 1987, commented that he and Spacey experienced creative differences during pre-production. Friedman remarked that he was