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What if James Dean had lived?
Astonishing new advert gives the original rebel a cause - and takes film critics by storm
Hollywood rebel James Dean is walking the screen again in a new advert that imagines what his life would have been like had he not died in a car crash aged just 24.
Technology brings the Rebel Without A Cause star back to life - and then ages him, showing a startlingly realistic version of what might have been.
He is shown receiving a lifetime achievement Oscar, as a director, protesting against the Vietnam War, and as a rather Angelina Jolie-like humanitarian ambassador.
Rolling forward the years: Dean is shown going on to become a film director in the ad for South African investment firm Allan Gray
The actor - played by an actor - is shown in some of his more legendary poses
In the final scene he has a car accident in a Porsche Spyder - just as in 1955 - but this time, as the smoke clears, a slightly stunned Dean is shown drawing a deep, shocked breath - very much alive.
The film, entitled 'Legend', finishes with the tagline: 'Given more time, imagine the possibilities'.
It is just an advertisement for the South African investment company Allan Gray - but it has taken film critics by storm.
One, Barry Ronge, has described it to the Guardian as 'the perfect blend of simple story-telling, superlative camera effects, and the smartest use of a celebrity we have seen in a decade'.
The film was shot over 14 months, with a cast of 300 and a crew of 150.
The actor who plays Dean, a mechanic from Cape Town named Des Erasmus, underwent two months of coaching for the part.
A combination of make-up, prosthetics, body doubles and CG face replacement helped bring the legendary actor to life.
The famous accident scene was shot using a replica 550 RSK Porsche Spyder - one of just two available. Dean had owned his Spyder for just nine days before the fatal crash.
'Dean might have become a junkie and done a Marlon Brando,' said 'Legend' director Keith Rose.
'But we prefer to think he'd have lived a long and wholesome life.'
