Allan Gray TV Ad Brings James Dean Back to Life

James Dean, the ultimate Rebel Without a Cause, who died aged just 24 in what has often been called a senseless car crash, lives again in a one-minute, black-and-white, short film for investment company Allan Gray. The ad, which has just been aired on television, has taken even film critics by surprise, with most of them deeming it the smartest use of a celebrity (dead or alive) for commercial purposes, as the Guardian informs.

The film / ad was shot by director Keith Rose from Velocity Films, and is called “Legend.” It shows the iconic actor’s life in reverse, what would have happened had he not died in the crash in 1955: perhaps he would have received an Oscar for lifetime achievement, become a reputed movie director, campaigned against the war in Vietnam, become a humanitarian like Angelina Jolie, lived a full and happy life with his family at his own ranch. All of this, just like the motto says: “Given more time, imagine the possibilities.”

The final scene of the ad replicates the 1955 accident, the only difference being that, once the dust clears, Dean is seen very much alive: shaken and shocked, but alive. The ad took 14 months to shoot, required a cast of about 300 people and a crew of 150. However, as Rose admits to the Telegraph, finding the right story and, most importantly, the right actor to play Dean was the biggest challenge of them all, because they couldn’t just go and rush into making the ad and, in doing so, “desecrate” the actor’s memory.

“This was an incredibly challenging board. You just take it for granted that James Dean is so iconic, so to go and mess with him, and replan his life, if stuff like that doesn’t work it’s like you’re desecrating his memory. We really needed to deal with it with sensitivity. Dean might have become a junkie and done a Marlon Brando, but we prefer to think he’d have lived a long and wholesome life.” Rose says of making the “Legend” film. As for the best Dean replacement, the winner was a mechanic from Cape Town who had to undergo two months of training to learn how to smoke, walk and talk like the legendary actor.

In the end, all the efforts paid off, as film critics are rushing to hail the ad as the best of the moment. It is “the perfect blend of simple storytelling, superlative camera effects and the smartest use of a celebrity we have seen in a decade,” film critic Barry Ronge says. Below is the full ad: watch and judge for yourselves.