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 Sea (film) show, complete with a gospel choir, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and against all odds it is a huge success. But his triumph is short-lived. Suffering from blood poisoning following surgery to repair his mechanical heart valve, Darin is rushed to the hospital, where he dies at the age of thirty-seven. Following his death, he meets the younger counterpart of himself once again, and the two duet with "As Long As I'm Singing." Cathy Moriarty-Gentile and Vanessa Redgrave were originally cast in "Beyond the Sea", but both actresses dropped out for unspecified reasons. Beginning in 1986, Barry Levinson