Originally conceived as a biographical film. Elvis Presley lobbied to play James Dean, but the decision was taken to make a documentary instead.
Robert Altman's first choice for the narrator was Marlon Brando. Originally, when he was approached, he gave it serious consideration but said, "Toward the end I think he (Dean) was beginning to find his own way as an actor. But this glorifying of Dean is all wrong. That's why I believe the documentary could be important. To show he wasn't a hero; show what he really was--just a lost boy trying to find himself." In the end, Brando refused the offer and Warner Brothers took over the project from Altman, hiring Martin Gabel, a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre Company, to narrate the documentary from a script by Stewart Stern. The latter had not only co-written Rebel Without a Cause (1955) but had also been a close friend of Dean's.
All the members of James Dean's family who consented to participate in this documentary only did so after stipulating that 5% of the film's profits should be donated to the James Dean Memorial Foundation.
Robert Altman and George W. George (son of Rube Goldberg) set out to document the life of James Dean after learning of his tragic demise in a car crash. The film was released two years after Dean's death.