Ang Lee’s Gemini Man saw a 100% digital creation of Will Smith battling his flesh and blood self. While the film was a dud, it did show that the technology has progressed by leaps and bounds, almost to a scary degree. And if you’re one of those who worried it might’ve marked the beginning of the end of real, living actors on the big screen…well, your nightmares are starting to take shape.
The upcoming Vietnam War film Finding Jack, which none of us was probably ever going to see, will feature James Dean in a role. Yes, THAT James Dean. Not some random dude who dared take the charismatic, gone-too-young actor’s name, but a digitally created CGI version of James Dean.
Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh are directing, based on Gareth Crocker’s book about the existence and abandonment of more than 10,000 military dogs at the end of the Vietnam conflict. Dean will play a secondary character named Rogan.
“We searched high and low for the perfect character to portray the role of Rogan, which has some extremely complex character arcs, and after months of research, we decided on James Dean,” said Ernst.
He added, “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.”
This sounds like a terrible idea, but the gimmick will do its job. People will now want to see what they do with James Dean, who died way back in 1955. I mean, if this is such a secondary role, how “complex” can his character arc truly be? And if these unknown filmmakers do manage to complete this successfully, what’s to stop a more accomplished director from taking it to the next level? [THR]
