Help, the CGI James Dean People Want to Resurrect More Dead Celebs Now
Credit to Author: River Donaghey| Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2019 18:44:48 +0000
James Dean may have passed away over a half a century ago, but thanks to the horrors of CGI technology, he's somehow coming back to star in a new movie again. Last week, a company called Magic City Films announced that it had obtained the rights to Dean's likeness and would be digitally recreating him for a role in a new Vietnam War movie—a war that happened a decade after Dean's death. Naturally, everybody with even a shred of human decency realized how, uh, weird and gross that is, and the news was met with a resounding "NOPE" all across Hollywood.
But our collective disgust at the idea of mangling an actor's legacy with the wonders of technology wasn't enough to deter the folks making the film—and now, it looks like a bunch of other dead celebrities are about to be unceremoniously resurrected, whether we like it or not.
On Tuesday, Variety revealed that the company who originally licensed Dean to Magic City, Worldwide XR, also owns the rights to around 400 other deceased actors, authors, and historical figures, and the James Dean movie is just the beginning.
Here's just a few of the celebrities that Worldwide XR can apparently bring back to life, according to their website:
- Aaliyah
- Andre the Giant
- Bettie Page
- Christopher Reeve
- Ingrid Bergman
- Jerry Garcia
- Jimmy Stewart
- Lou Gehrig
- Malcolm X
- Maya Angelou
"Influencers will come and go, but legends will never die," Worldwide XR head Travis Cloyd told Variety. Cloyd also promised that there's "a lot more to come" for Dean specifically, aside from the upcoming Vietnam movie.
"Think of it as James Dean 2.0," he said, sounding uncomfortably like the CEO of that fake, dystopian tech company in the new Westworld trailer. The future is now and it is terrible. Sorry, everybody.
This article originally appeared on VICE US.