It’s very hard to actually form an opinion on the just-announced plan to cast a CGI James Dean in the upcoming film “Finding Jack.” This will be considered, in some circles, as the fourth movie Dean has starred in after “Rebel Without A Cause,” “East of Eden,” and “Giant.”).
Bringing Dean back from the dead, more than 60 years after he passed away, is already a creepy proposition on-paper. However, the way it will be executed is a whole other ballgame and I cannot even fathom thinking about that right now because I still don’t believe this project will actually come to fruition and be splattered on-screen for audiences.
“Finding Jack” will be co-directed by Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh.
Ernst tells The Hollywood Reporter that the casting decision fo Dean actually started when they “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.”
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?
The claim that “after months of research” he and Golykh decided to go with a CGI imitation of James Dean is rather … strange. The best reason I can think of for their using Dean is purely based on marketing exposure. It will, no doubt, stir some commercial interest to their film. So, they figured, paying money to Dean’s family for the rights was a fairly cheap deal, especially when it came to their overall bottom line.
The novel “Finding Jack” is based on the story of a Vietnam vet determined to reconnect with a combat-assistance dog named Jack in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Kill me now.