James Dean died in 1955 in a car crash.

He was famous before his death, but the untimeliness of his demise propelled him to icon status.

Now you can find him on throw pillows and mass-produced wall “art” wherever bad taste is found, alongside Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and ‘Live Love Laugh’ pictures.

Dean’s last movie was Giant, released posthumously a year after the crash.

It tells the tale of a wealthy Texas ranger who shakes things up on the ranch when he returns home with a wife. She doesn’t get on with his sister and attracts the admiration of one of the ranch workers, played by Dean.

This results in an obvious rivalry and some very awkward flirting.

You can enjoy some of that awkward flirting in the trailer:

They just don’t make ’em like they used to.

They’re going to try, though.

Yesterday, the news broke that a very-dead Dean will be appearing in a film about the abandonment of over 10 000 military dogs at the end of the Vietnam War, called Finding Jack. 

Here’s Esquire:

Directed by [South African] Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh, the project comes from the filmmakers’ own recently launched production house Magic City Films, which obtained the rights to use Dean’s image from his family.

Canadian VFX banner Imagine Engine will be working alongside South African VFX company MOI Worldwide to re-create what the filmmakers describe as “a realistic version of James Dean.”

So South Africa is helping to make this happen. Either we’ll be praised for our efforts, or this is going to be a disaster.

The casting choice also came about in a weird way.

“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,” Ernst told THR.

“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.”

So there wasn’t a single living human being on the entire planet who could take on the role? What about Scarlett Johansson – she’ll take on any role, it seems.

I’m still keen to see how it turns out, but the tide of public opinion seems to be against the film’s producers at present.

[source:esquire]