Heath Ledger & The Curse of Terry Gilliam (Part II)

(continued from Part I)

Years go by, Gilliam only manages to make one movie, Tideland. It's not the worst film ever, but far from his "A game". So, lets fast foward the story to end of production of Christopher Nolan's soon-to-be-smash-hit The Dark Knight.

Heath Ledger, fresh from filming as The Joker - the role that will now probably define his career and has a good chance to earn him posthumus awards - signs on with Gilliam for production of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. A filming schedule is made, Gilliam finally has his ducks in a row, production begins ... and Ledger passes away.


While this tragedy - a word used in its purest form here - adds hype and buzz to The Dark Knight, it seems to kill all hope for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Luckily for us fans, it looks like this one is really getting done. With Ledger's role started but not completed, Gilliam had a quandary - should he recast and then reshoot the entire film? Instead, a seemingly better - or at least more interesting and commercially viable - solution was reached. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law all signed on to the film to each take turns playing Ledger in the role as a last tribute to their friend. Reports even have it that the actors are giving their fees to Ledgers family.

When news of this becomes more widespread and more publically known, it will almost guarantee Gilliam a commercial success with the film. And why not? With his talent at the helm of it - and with Tom Waits playing the devil - this is the film I am most excited for in 2009.

[official website]
Terry Gilliam's Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Plot and Concept Art [Worst Previews]

- Goodchild

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Heath Ledger & The Curse of Terry Gilliam (Part I)

Though his "A game" hasn't been publically prevalent in the past few years (we'll be nice and say about a decade), Terry Gilliam is still my favorite filmmaker.
If you know anything about what Gilliam has been up to in the last 10 years, you know it certainly seems as though any and all of his productions have been cursed - and if you didn't, you do now!

Through this new year of 2009, the most famous exapmle of this curse can actually be found in a documentary film called Lost In La Mancha. My prediction is that the most famous example will soon be that Heath Ledger died suddenly while making Gilliam's new film - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Lost In La Mancha was supposed to be a different film froom the one that it became. Originally, the documentary crew received permission from Gilliam to document his filmmaking process throughout the production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. However, things started going wrong - VERY wrong - and the doc turned into what seemed to be recorded proof that the universe itself was trying to stop the film from being made.

There were many, many things that went wrong from the get go. Jean Rochefort, a Spanish actor cast to play Don Quixote, had to spend 7 months learning English. Through scheduling conflicts, it was not until just before filming that Rochefort and his costar, Johnny Depp, were able to get together to rehearse. The scheduling was ridiculously tight because the budget wasn't nearly what the script, or Gilliam's vision needed.

But perhaps the most extreme moment occurred when, while actually in the middle of the second day of location shooting with the Rochefort and Depp, a freak monsoon came from out of nowhere, reigning enormous hail on everyone, and causing a flash flood to literally wash the film equipment away. The flood and storm had changed the landscape where the filming was supposed to take place, before any of the shots had been gotten. Soon after, Rochefort was diagnosed with a herniated disc and could not ride a horse around - something completely imperative to the role - and a multi-million dollar insurance claim was filed, leaving the rights of the script in the hands of the insurance company. Production was completely over.

(to be continued)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [NY Times]

- Goodchild

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