The Immortal Entertainer
Digitally de-aging, or recreating an actor in a movie, has become the norm in recent years. Although CGI (computer-generated image) versions of young actors have been present in movies such as Gemini Man, Aquaman, and Blade Runner 2049, it was not until 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that the technology showed its concerning potential. The movie saw completely CGI versions of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia and Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin. The problem: neither actor was alive at the time of filming. In other words, Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing were rotting in their graves while simultaneously creating new content for moviegoers. Digital reanimation and the role it played in Rogue One brought many ethical dilemmas. Yet, seeing how both Fisher and Cushing’s roles were short on screen time, and their characters crucial to the story (given the nature of Star Wars and the time period Rogue One is set in) it was generally agreed upon that their CGI contribution to the movie was required and not entirely immoral. The alternatives of recasting their roles or ignoring the characters would have stood out and created more controversy.
On November 6, 2019, however, this technology seemingly reached what was previously considered one of its worst-case scenarios. The Hollywood Reporter announced that James Dean, the cultural icon who died tragically in 1955, would be “reborn in CGI for [a] Vietnam War Action-Drama [titled] Finding Jack”. This news immediately raises a lot of concerns. James Dean “acting” in 2020 isn’t as insignificant as Arnold Schwarzenegger being de-aged for an action sequence in Terminator: Dark Fate, nor as touching as John Lennon making a three-minute digital cameo in Yesterday. This movie will be taking a man who has been dead for over sixty years and virtually resurrect him in order to put him in what is “considered a secondary lead role” of a brand new war movie; a movie to which he had no previous connections. Dean cannot read the script, meet this director, and most importantly physically sign on to perform. The Hollywood Reporter article claims that Finding Jack’s filmmakers have “obtained the rights to use Dean’s image from his family.” This notion of selling off a dead person’s likeness seems eerily dystopian to me, bringing forth questions regarding art, human rights, and one’s legacy. How can an actor protect their legacy from being tarnished long after their demise?
If we have come to the point where, out of the millions of actors working today, nobody could have played what appears to be a run-of-the-mill war-movie protagonist, then not only is the acting profession declining, it is quite literally dying. Dean being reanimated could be the start of a new wave of “acting”. Mark Roesler, who represents Dean’s family alongside more than 1,700 deceased celebrities stated, “Now that we have closed with this iconic figure, we look forward to rapidly closing our remaining actors." We could very well be experiencing the age of immortal entertainers.
Original Report: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/afm-james-dean-reborn-cgi-vietnam-war-action-drama-1252703