Beyond the Sea (film) included Johnny Depp as Bobby Darin, Drew Barrymore as Sandra Dee, Bette Midler as Darin's birth mother Nina and Bruno Kirby as Nina's husband/Darin's right-hand man, Charlie Mafia. Levinson eventually vacated the director's position in favor of "Liberty Heights" (1999); because he was unable to get "Dreamer" into production, Warner Bros. lost the music licensing rights, which reverted to the Darin estate. In March 1999, Dick Clark Productions announced their teaming with Dodd Darin on a biopic, with collaboration from producer Arthur Friedman, who had been developing both "The Bobby Darin Story" and "Dreamer" with Levinson at Warner Bros. since
Kevin Spacey cast in bigger roles, including the malevolent office manager in the ensemble film "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992), one-half of a bickering Connecticut couple in the dark comedy film "The Ref" (1994), and a malicious Hollywood studio boss in the satire "Swimming with Sharks" (1995), gaining him positive notices by critics. His performance as the enigmatic criminal Verbal Kint in Bryan Singer's 1995 neo-noir film "The Usual Suspects" won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Spacey appeared in the 1995 thriller film "Seven", making a sudden entrance late in the film as the serial killer John Doe after going