Rebel Without a Pulse

Wait, they don't understand the backlash? How could they...I mean, aren't they just-huh? Oh, I'm talking about Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh, the directors of an upcoming movie called Finding Jack. They're evidently befuddled by the backlash to their decision to cast James Dean in one of the leading roles in their Vietnam War movie.

Yeah. The dead one.

Because that always
works out so well...

Their plan is to recreate the actor using CGI sorcery, but they can't, for some reason, wrap their heads around the negative reaction:

"We don't really understand it. We never intended for this to be a marketing gimmick."

-Director Anton Ernst said of

the reaction to his marketing 

gimmick of casting a dead guy

Mainly they just searched low...

Doesn't understand the-has he not heard of the internet? Anyway, he went on to say that he and co-director Golykh-

"...searched high and low for the perfect character to portray the role of Rogan, which has some extreme [sic] complex character arcs, and after months of research decided on James Dean." 

-Ernst on-wait, how many

character arcs does he have?

"Eh...too alive. Thank you, next!"

Um, couple of things. He says they searched high and low for an actor-well, actually he says for the perfect character to play the role, but I think he means actor. So they looked high and low and couldn't find anyone better? Anyone. Among all the living actors in L.A. or wherever, there was not one actor with a pulse more suited to the extreme [sic] complex character arcs? That means there are potentially dozens or hundreds of actors who now have to cope with having been beaten out by a dead guy. Which I imagine must be discouraging.

Huh? Oh, it was a movie in the
80's. A delightful romp about
fraud and corpse desecration. 

Also, what about Dean's family? Surely they are outraged by the directors' Weekend at Bernie's-ing their dead-

"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."

-Ernst, shutting me right up

I uh...I guess they're cool with it, but there's no way to know if Dean would be. Could you imagine if Ernst and Golykh hopped into a time machine, went back to 1955 and asked James Dean if he'd mind him using his image to create a computer animated version of him to be used in a movie about a war that hasn't started yet? 

"Um...couple of questions first..."

-James Dean, simultaneously confronted

with computer technology, foreknowledge of 

his own death, and time traveling filmmakers

Oh...sorry...

And look, I don't think I've ever watched a James Dean movie, but his body of work runs from 1951 to 1955 when he, you know, died. Sure he did some television, but he appeared in a total of three movies in which he wasn't an extra. What is Ernst's bar for epic? And again, I'm not taking shots at Dean as an actor, but is that really enough to go on? Sure, all Ernst and Golykh need is enough footage to render Polar Express-Dean, but that's not the same thing as acting. I mean, actors are artists and collaborators, not just line-spouting marionettes.

So of course the internet is upset. The internet is always upset, but in this instance it's not unjustified. The grave-robbing angle aside, the suggestion that all you need is an actor's image removes them from the creative process and we all know what happens when you do that. This nonsense:

Although CG would have sparred the actors in this scene the
ignominy of arguing over which one of them is more blinded by love.