Actors and Twitter users alike are taking issue with the plan to use a CGI version of the late actor to play a role in upcoming Vietnam War movie 'Finding Jack'.
- Nov 7, 2019
AceShowbiz - The casting of CGI James Dean in upcoming Vietnam War movie "Finding Jack" has sparked an outcry. Following news about the use of CGI version of the late actor to play a role in the action drama film, Twitter users, including actors Chris Evans and Elijah Wood, have taken to the social media site to speak out against the casting.
"This is awful," Evans wrote on Twitter. "Maybe we can get a computer to paint us a new Picasso. Or write a couple new John Lennon tunes," he sarcastically suggested, before adding, "The complete lack of understanding here is shameful."
Echoing the criticism, Wood tweeted, "NOPE. this shouldn't be a thing." Julie Ann Emery, who stars on TV series "Preacher", voiced her concern over how the role would be credited since another actor will voice the character while his visual performance will be constructed via "full body" CGI using actual footage and photos.
"That's not James Dean. It's his face on a motion capture performance and an 'anonymous' actor providing voice pattern and choices," the actress commented. "I'd like to know how it will be credited. How the real actors will be paid. And how little this team understands the acting craft."
Devon Sawa, who auditioned another role in "Finding Jack", also weighed in on Dean CGI casting. "They couldn't give this role to an actual human?" he asked.
Zelda Williams, whose late father Robin Williams restricted exploitation of his image for 25 years following his death, slammed the use of CGI to resurrect a late actor. "I have talked to friends about this for YEARS and no one ever believed me that the industry would stoop this low once tech got better," she tweeted. "Publicity stunt or not, this is puppeteering the dead for their 'clout' alone and it sets such an awful precedent for the future of performance."
Michelle Buchman, who runs social media for "Star Wars", is confused why studio execs would not just find an actor who looks like Dean instead. "There is literally a James Dean Festival held every year in Indiana where they have a look-alike contest so like if you really needed someone it's not that hard to find them," she posted, referring to Fairmount, Indiana's annual festival dedicated to the late actor.
It was earlier reported that Dean's family granted directors Anton Ernst and Tati Golykh the rights to use his image for the action-drama, which will be based on Gareth Crocker's novel about the real-life abandonment of thousands of military canine units at the end of the Vietnam War.
Mark Roesler, chairman and chief executive of CMG Worldwide, has defended the use of CGI Dean in the movie. "James Dean was known as Hollywood's 'rebel' and he famously said 'if a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live after he's died, then maybe he was a great man. Immortality is the only true success,' " Roesler explained. "What was considered rebellious in the '50s is very different than what is rebellious today, and we feel confident that he would support this modern day act of rebellion."
