James Dean Will Be Digitally Brought Back to Life to Star in a Vietnam War Drama Called FINDING JACK
James Dean, the iconic young actor who starred in classic films such as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant, will star in an upcoming Vietnam War-era drama called Finding Jack. The actor died in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24, but he will be digitally resurrected through CGI visual effects for the film.
This is pretty damn crazy, but Magic City Films managed to obtain the rights from Dean’s family to bring him back to life to star in the film. This wouldn’t be the first time an actor has been resurrected digitally for a film. Peter Cushing was brought back for Rogue One, but Dean is being brought back as the lead in a movie! Not a supporting character.
Finding Jack will be adapted from Gareth Crocker’s novel. “Based on the actual existence and abandonment of over 10,000 canine units at the end of the Vietnam War, Finding Jack is an emotional journey about friendship and love under desperate circumstances.”
Producer Anton Ernst said in a statement:
“We feel very honored that his family supports us and will take every precaution to ensure that his legacy as one of the most epic film stars to date is kept firmly intact. The family views this as his fourth movie, a movie he never got to make. We do not intend to let his fans down.”
The business agent for the family of James Dean added:
“With the rapidly evolving technology, we see this as a whole new frontier for many of our iconic clients. This opens up a whole new opportunity for many of our clients who are no longer with us.”
Canadian VFX company Imagine Engine will be working alongside South African VFX company MOI Worldwide to recreate a realistic version of James Dean. Geoff Anderson from Imagine Engine will be overseeing the VFX supervision relating to the James Dean recreation.
It’ll be interesting to see if they can actually pull this off. But if Ang Lee couldn’t do it effectively with his young Will Smith in Gemini Man, I doubt these guys will be able to effectively pull it off with James Dean. I just don’t think the technology is there to do this effectively yet. However, I am curious to see what this digital version of James Dean will look like.
Andy Serkis previously raised some issues about this very thing saying:
“The ability to create photorealistic characters, to digitally de-age actors or digitally resurrect performances from actors who have passed, raises some serious issues.
“When your performance becomes data it can be manipulated, reworked or sampled, much like the music industry samples vocals and beats. If we can do that, where does the intellectual property lie? Who owns authorship of the performance? Where are the boundaries?”
What do you all think about James Dean being resurrected digitally to star in this new movie?
Source: Variety