Beyond the Sea (film) portray Bobby Darin, but the filmmakers believed the actor was too old. Around this time, Spacey coincidentally performed the cover version of Darin's "That Old Black Magic" for the soundtrack of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". The actor explained that after 1994, "at least three times a year, my manager would call over to Warner Bros. and say, 'Hey, what's happening with that Bobby Darin movie? You guys ever going to make it?'" With filming to originally begin in late 1997, pre-production for "Dreamer" was commencing, and Levinson began to discuss the film with various actors. This
Beyond the Sea (film) their own there." "Beyond the Sea" received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 147 reviews collected by "Rotten Tomatoes", 42% of the critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 5.2/10. "Metacritic" calculated a weighted average score of 46/100, based on 35 reviews. Sandra Dee, Dodd Darin, Jimmy Scalia and Steve Blauner responded enthusiastically to Spacey's work on the film. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" felt Spacey looked too old to portray Darin convincingly and called the film "one of the most embarrassing spectacles of 2004" and "jaw-droppingly awful, a misbegotten and ill-conceived vanity