With his posthumous award wins for Best Supporting Actor it’s almost too easy to view The Dark Knight as Heath Ledger’s last film, despite the fact he was half-way through another when he passed away. With the way Christopher Nolan’s super-hero epic was marketed and all the Oscar and Golden Globe buzz surrounding Ledger’s Joker, Director Terry Gilliam’s latest, in which Ledger stars, has suffered a bit of the old swept-under-the-carpet treatment in the media.

The creatively titled The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was half completed when the actor passed away, leaving a huge gaping hole in the cast sheet and a significant amount of material left un-shot. Gilliam initially thought ‘that’s it’, the movie is gone. At first he couldn’t see a way of completing the project without his young star and thoughts of throwing in the towel entered his mind. But the idea of a rewrite was bandied around by those on the project and a plot was hatched for saving the movie and therefore allowing audiences to see Ledger’s actual last work in front of the camera.
 
It was never an option to fill the alarmingly large gap left by Ledger with one solitary actor. Gilliam said his character, Tony, was too complex and the actor was doing so much with him that it would be impossible to patch the hole with one fill-in. So enter Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Three actors of varying styles and backgrounds who share one important detail; they knew Heath Ledger well. Gilliam settled on three guys who would each play one respective aspect of Ledger’s original character. The trio found time to fly out to the set and shoot their respective scenes separately and went so far as to bequeath their pay cheques for the part on to Ledger’s daughter, Matilda.
 
So what the hell is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus? Well, Gilliam’s ambitious tale is a magically sinister adventure involving a travelling theatre troupe led by Christopher Plummer’s Doctor Parnassus and their magic mirror. Through a deal with the Devil, Doctor Parnassus gains the right to allow audience members to travel through his mirror and explore their imaginations. However the Devil returns to follow up on the deal which involves taking possession of the Doctor’s teenage daughter Valentina, played by Lily Cole. Ledger’s complex, mysterious Tony follows the troupe in their attempts to rescue the girl.
 
No decent trailers for Doctor Parnassus have hit the internet yet as far as I have found but with a late 2009 release date no doubt they will be coming.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit
• Facebook
• Google
• Technorati

Do you like this post?

+14

150 votes