Dean films dusted off for anniversary

James Dean’s films are being dusted off and repackaged as part of an aggressive marketing plan for the 50th anniversary of his death in 2005.

Warner Bros, which owns the three films in which he appeared, Giant, East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause, has already released Giant as a DVD and will be doing the same with the other two.

Giant, which starred Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor, was Warner Bros’ top-grossing film for more than 30 years and although he was only on screen for 33 minutes, Dean was posthumously nominated for a best-actor Oscar for his performance as Jett Rink, a roughneck who strikes oil.

In addition, Warner Bros is producing a feature-length documentary, James Dean: Forever Young, which will be released at film festivals and distributed during the spring of 2005.

“We reinvent James Dean every four to five years,” Todd Uglow, corporate counsel for the company controlling and marketing the actor’s image, tells the Los Angeles Times.

James Dean died in a car accident at the wheel of his Spyder Porsche just days after he shot his final scenes for Giant.