The Controversial Tech Driving James Dean’s Return to the Big Screen
The studio bringing James Dean back for a new film suspects you’ll see a lot more digital actors going forward
By Eric Alt
The tagline for Superman: The Movie was “You’ll believe a man can fly.” That was how low the bar was for visual effects in 1978. Now, of course, it’s more like you’ll believe the guy from Goonies can play an 8-foot purple alien warlord, Will Smith can play opposite his younger self, and you’ll believe an actor hasn’t actually been dead for 64 years.
Earlier this month, filmmakers Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh revealed plans to digitally “cast” James Dean in their new film Finding Jack. Yes, the same James Dean who perished in an auto accident in 1955, and who was last seen onscreen in the 1956 film Giant.
Of course, Ernst and Golykh aren’t breaking new ground here. The 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story used digital effects to bring back late actor Peter Cushing — who passed away in 1994 at the age of 81 — so he could reprise his role as the villainous Grand Moff Tarkin. Other films like 2015’s Furious 7, 2000s Gladiator, and 1994’s The Crow used digital trickery to compensate for the untimely death of an actor, but Rogue One was different. This was bringing…
