Blethyn as Polly Cassotto, Bobby's biological maternal grandmother, who teaches him music as a child. Caroline Aaron as Nina Cassotto Maffia, Bobby's biological mother, whom he believed to be his older sister until she tells him the truth when he is 33. Greta Scacchi as Mary Douvan, Sandra's overprotective mother. Peter Cincotti as Dick Behrke, Bobby's arranger and pianist. Matt Rippy as David Gershenson, Bobby's publicist. Cathy Moriarty-Gentile and Vanessa Redgrave were originally cast in Beyond the Sea, but both actresses dropped out for unspecified reasons. Development Barry Levinson Beginning in 1986, Barry Levinson intended to produce and direct a biopic based on the life of Darin with funding from his own production company, Baltimore Pictures. With writer Lewis Colick, Levinson pitched the idea to Warner Bros. Pictures, who agreed to co-finance The Bobby Darin Story and cover distribution duties. Producer Arthur Friedman, a fan of Darin's work, began to laboriously negotiate for crucial music licensing rights with Darin's ex-wife, Sandra Dee; his son, Dodd; and former manager Steve Blauner. Colick wrote the first draft in 1987 before Warner Bros. and Levinson commissioned rewrites from Paul Attanasio and Paul Schrader. Their scripts, which kept The Bobby Darin Story title, concentrated on Sandra Dee's alcoholism and childhood molestation by her stepfather. David Gershenson, Darin's longtime friend, publicist and manager, joined the project as a historical consultant. Tom Cruise was reportedly under consideration to portray Darin. Meanwhile, in May 1994, Warner Bros. optioned Dodd Darin's book, Dream Lovers (). James Toback and Lorenzo Carcaterra were hired to rewrite Attanasio's The Bobby Darin Story, which they retitled Dreamer in an attempt to incorporate the information present in Dodd Darin's Dream Lovers. Toback's script heavily focused on Darin's childhood rheumatic fever and lifelong struggle with heart disease. It also followed the previous Attanasio and Schrader scripts. Carcaterra's detailed research included Darin's music records, home videos, early television clips, authorized and unauthorized biographies, newspaper articles and magazine interviews. "I decided to meet with a lot of real-life people associated with Bobby Darin until [Levinson] said it was taking the focus off of Bobby," Carcaterra explained. As a result, some of the writer's favorite scenes, including a Las Vegas confrontation with Elvis Presley, were omitted from his third and final draft, which came in at a lengthy 164 pages. Beginning in 1994, Kevin Spacey first offered his services to portray Bobby Darin, but the filmmakers believed