Talk about a comeback.
Hollywood icon, screen legend and debatably queer actor James Dean will make his return to films in 2020, a full 65 years after his death. Production company Magic City Films has announced that Dean will star in the war drama Finding Jack, courtesy of groundbreaking CGI techniques.
“We searched high and low for the perfect character to portray the role of Rogan, which has some extreme complex character arcs, and after months of research, we decided on James Dean,” director Anton Ernst tells The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Ernst will co-direct the film with Tati Golykh. The pair have said that a body double will physically portray Dean’s role during filming before effects artists will graft Dean’s likeness onto the body. A sound-alike actor will also provide Dean’s voice in the role.
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Related: Marlon Brando And James Dean Had Secret S&M Relationship, Trashy New Book Claims
The announcement of James Dean’s “resurrection” comes at a sensitive time in Hollywood, when special effects can revive long-dead actors for full performances using a mix of archival footage, body doubles, and sound-alike actors. Recently, the 2016 Star Wars film Rogue One allowed Peter Cushing–who died in 1994–to reprise his role as Grand Moff Tarkin from the original film. Studio Disney/Lucasfilm have also said similar techniques will allow the late Carrie Fisher to complete her role as General Leia in the forthcoming The Rise of Skywalker.
Yet with this new era of technology come moral questions: Should studios have the right to use the likeness of long-dead actors in their films? Is a performance cobbled together through archive footage and sound-alikes a genuine performance? For the moment, these questions remain unanswered, even as Hollywood rushes to give beloved superstars like James Dean a return to the screen.
JaredMacBride
Dean would never have claimed to be a “queer” actor.
mujerado
That’s hardly significant. In those days no actor would have identified in that way. It would’ve been an instant career-killer, and probably have resulted in arrest.
Bob LaBlah
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is NO concrete proof that James Dean was gay. There are accusations galore from biographers (whose books won’t sell unless there is some controversy regarding the dead celebrity they are writing about) with one swearing on a stack of bibles they had sex. Let this poor guy rest in peace. Three quarters of todays gay youth can’t name a single movie he was in without the aid of a google search and even afterward they still don’t care who he was or what he did (which wasn’t much).
mujerado
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
Cam
So maintain the closet. Ok got it.
Vince
That’s really cool. Plus, he’s been dead long enough that all his immediate family are now long since dead too so there should be no such moral concerns.
Bob LaBlah
@Vince…..”all his immediate family are now long since dead”
As are his former school classmates, teachers and just about anyone who can actually say they stood in the same room with him. Were he still alive he would be ninety years old. Get real people, let the guy rest in peace. To tell you the gods honest truth he looks high off of pot in just about all his pics and movies. Yes, that stuff was around sixty-five years ago as was any other drug you needed in Hollywood. It didn’t just start in the 1980’s kiddies.
Tombear
James Deans manager was gay and Jimmy’s lover for several years. James Dean was a heavy Cannibus user during his days in Hollywood.
sanfranca1
What a terrible idea.