Playing a screen icon such as James Dean is not a task that is shouldered lightly, but it’s one that Dane DeHaan is tackling, appearing alongside Robert Pattinson in the first trailer for Life.
Control’s Anton Corbijn is back chronicling the lives of real people for this one, and Luke Davies wrote the script, which tracks the pair’s interaction in 1955 before Dean became an international icon. Photojournalist Dennis Stock met Dean at a party and quickly realised he could be something special. Initially defensive and feeling guilty that he spent so much time away from his son, Stock emerged from his shell as he hung out with Dean in Los Angeles, New York and Indiana, chronicling his world for Life Magazine.
Of course, there was always a struggle to convince his bosses that Dean was worth covering, since no one realised quite what he’d become. On the evidence of this, DeHaan’s doing a solid job channelling the more vulnerable side of Dean (and pulling off the unlikely trick of filling a role once played by James Franco for a second time after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, since Franco played Dean in a 2001 TV movie).
With Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley and Kristen Hager also in the cast, Life will be out here on September 25.