The planned biopic focusing on James Dean‘s personal life has landed its lead actor.
Brandon Flynn, known for True Detective and 13 Reasons Why, has been cast as the late legendary actor in the feature Willie and Jimmy Dean, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. Writer-director Guy Guido’s film is currently in development and is based on William Bast’s 2006 memoir, Surviving James Dean.
In his book, Bast described meeting Dean at the UCLA theater program at the age of 19 and wrote that the two men became roommates, close friends and eventually lovers. Bast claimed they kept their fling private to avoid hurting Dean’s career while the rising star had relationships with female stars, with Bast remaining hopeful that he and Dean would soon live together again. Five years after meeting Bast, Dean died in a car accident in 1955 at the age of 24, with two of his signature films, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, released posthumously.
Guido’s script is set from the first meeting between Bill Bast and Dean to the actor’s death on Sept. 30, 1955. (Bast died in 2015 at age 84.) The film will focus on Bast and Dean navigating their evolving relationship and Bast coming to terms with being gay during the 1950s.
“This is not a traditional biopic,” says Guido, who spoke to Bast back in 2011. “It’s a tender and sometimes tragic story about two young men who found each other in a time and place where being seen — truly seen — came at a cost. Brandon Flynn brings both the fire and vulnerability this role demands. I couldn’t imagine anyone more perfect to explore and play out the complexities of James Dean.”
Adds Flynn, “James Dean is like the known unknown. His short life left behind just three films, a mountain of photographs and a cultural mythology we keep trying to decode. This script is a beautiful attempt at truthfully understanding who he really was — not just the icon, but the man.”
Flynn is known for roles on such series as Ratched and Manhunt and for features including The Parenting and Hellraiser.
The actor praises the Willie and Jimmy Dean script for humanizing Dean, rather than taking a sensationalist approach. “It highlights how Hollywood has historically forced LGBTQ people into performance, even in their personal lives,” Flynn continues. “This story dares to present James Dean as a man with real, complex relationships, and I think there’s power in that truth.”
Guido, who previously directed the Hulu feature Madonna and the Breakfast Club, has been meeting with potential producers. Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee of Barden/Schnee Casting Agency are leading the casting process as the film continues to search for performers to play the sensitive and intelligent Bast and his glamorous single mother, Bernice.