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
Beyond the Law (1968 American film) Mailer's film is less cinema than it could be, than perhaps its maker would wish it to be." Richard Combs writes in the "Monthly Film Bulletin": "But it is a measure of the flexibility and assurance with which Mailer handles the format generally that his insistent philosophical motifs jostle quite happily with more random, improvisational effects". The "LA Times"' Kevin Thomas sees Mailer's film as not really living up to the potential of "America's Number 1 writer": "As a kind of improvised put-on, "Beyond the Law" does have its moments of black irony and humor. Also, Mailer does get pretty