James Dean, present-day pirates to highlight Blue Star’s bow

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/28/08 — Modern-day pirates, a story right out the headlines, and James Dean, a story that will never die in Hollywood history, lead Blue Star Technologies’ first film production slate.
The Malawi pirates, currently overtaking a ship a week, now holding a quarter-billion-dollar tanker with another $110 million in oil, are part of the story that has captivated the world, but that’s only part of the modern-day pirate story. There have been more than 100 pirate attacks off East Africa this year. Insurance companies often pay the ransoms, allowing the situation to grow.
Drug “pirates” around Florida have been hijacking crafts for years as a way to get their transferred narcotics booty into ports with a U.S.-registered boat, one that was originally scheduled with port officials for the proverbial “three-hour cruise.” The boat’s passengers are often killed. On the East Coast, it accounts for some of the “Bahama Triangle” stories of lost vessels.
Blue Star Technologies (formerly Blue Ray Technologies) will be involved in both films, according to producer and company founder Erick Hansen. Working title for the pirate film is “Marine Salvage,” after the elite group that battles the modern-day pirates worldwide.
“I am dedicating both projects to John Daly, the indie film great that recently passed,” said Hansen of Daly, who generated Oscars from films like “Platoon” and “The Last Emperor.” Hansen and Daly were partner in Blu-ray distribution firm Edge of Light and Hansen owns the largest U.S. indie Blu-ray disc manufacturing company. Daly was to be involved in the projects.
He added “As to the pirate film, this new breed are not romantic like Johnny Depp in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise. But the term ‘cutthroats’ applies and we all wonder how they manage to cause havoc in today’s radar and warship-patrolled oceans - and how they can be apprehended. The headlines each day bear this out.”
Regarding the James Dean project, presently called “Lost Icon: The Vision of James Dean,” Hansen said “Dean remains an indelible icon in American film and inspiration to all actors, despite his all-too-short career and ‘Live fast, die young’ creed. Like Marilyn Monroe, Heath Ledger, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando — their candle will burn forever”
On the Dean project, writer-director Charles Quinn said it would be based on the 1,500 photos shot by the film legend, or of him - as well as his life. Dean was about to start directing when he died in a fiery car crash, according to his friend Dennis Hopper.
Quinn said “We will roll out the Dean project in three stages. We have a short film of the photos Jimmy shot himself of other actors award-winning actors like Martin Landau and Dennis Hopper. That will be submitted to the Cannes Film Festival. We also have a 90-minute feature film project and a 43-minute version.” The latter is television length, and given Dean’s notoriety, a likely acquisition target for a big cable company, perhaps even network.
The short film version, now in post-production, will have a run not only on the film festival circuit, but museums, according to Quinn, who said Dean photo art will be on display starting with the Anderson Museum in Indianapolis.
“Hi my name is Jim:” Dean, calling himself “Jim” typed each description of the key photos. The pictures themselves are controversial as one reportedly shows Dean and Landau smoking pot.
The photo legacy are just as controversial, Quinn said he has exclusive rights to the Dean archive of photos, which he acquired from Dean’s family.
He said he accessed the archive - stored at CMG Worldwide, a marketing and licensing firm in Indianapolis - while he was using a computer owned by designers John Fors and Susan Wilson, both of Seattle, during a meeting with them. Quinn alleges that their computer stored his password, allowing the couple to later access the images in the archive themselves and then download them. Quinn claims Fors and Wilson then made posters and prints for their own Dean project, according to the Seattle Times
Both Fors and Wilson deny doing so.
Quinn has reported the alleged theft to Seattle police, who say they have not decided whether the case will be assigned to a detective for additional investigation.
The original Dean photos are locked in a vault in Indiana, and great care has been taken so that none has ever been made public, in part because some of the images are controversial and include Dean smoking marijuana, Quinn said.
Although there are many other photos in the public domain that Schatt took of Dean and even some that Dean shot, those in the collection have never been made public and that’s why Quinn and CMG are concerned.
The images in the collection give a glimpse of “the world through James Dean’s eyes,” Quinn said.
Before his death in a car accident in Central California in September 1955, Dean had starred in only three films: “Rebel Without A Cause,” “East of Eden” and “Giant,” earning two Academy Award nominations. But his acting style, brooding good looks and death at the age of 24 made him an icon to many, inspiring books and songs.

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