Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a $30M Terry Gilliam film that just happens to be Heath Ledger’s final movie.  Imaginarium is an adventure/fantasy/mystery movie that follows a 1000 year old immortal (Christopher PLummer) who, through a deal with the devil, operates a traveling theater that takes its audience through a magical portal into their imaginations.

The story unfolds as the devil, who comes to collect on his deal, goes after Doctor Panassus’s daughter.  Heath Ledger plays a character named Tony who assists the Doctor to rescue his daughter through a series of parallel world adventures.

Unfortunately Ledger passed away before he could finish filming, and so a brilliant twist was added to the movie – Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law all stepped in to take over his role.  The script was rewritten to make Ledger’s character a shape-shifter.  Deep, Farrell and Law all did this because they were Ledger’s close friends, and in addition each of them donated their film fees to Ledger’s family.

I’ve posted all that before, so what’s new?  Thanks to SlashFilm we have the following image which is the first that shows all the cast, even if only in part:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Officially the release date has been set for the 24th September 2009, although it is expected it will premiere at Cannes in May.

There’s no doubt that the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight was in large part due to the brilliant portrayal of The Joker by Heath Ledger.  So much so that although having passed on (sadly), Ledger is widely considered a high possibility to win a post-humus Academy Award for his work.

It may surprise you to learn that despite his death, Heath Ledger’s screen time is not yet done – The Dark Knight was not his final movie.  Enter ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus‘.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a $30M Terry Gilliam film with Ledger playing the lead character Tony.  Billed as an adventure/fantasy/mystery movie, the story follows a 1000 year old immortal (Christopher PLummer) who, through a deal with the devil, operates a travelling theatre that takes its audience through a magical portal into their imaginations. Read the rest of this entry »