Heath Ledger was filming a movie when he died: not Batman but The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the latest hallucinatory (and typically cursed) project from Monty Python alumnus Terry Gilliam.
How hallucinatory? New photos below.
The flick was described this way at Cannes:
Dr. Parnassus with his extraordinary travelling show “The Imaginarium” offers to members of the audience an irresistible opportunity to enter their universe of imaginations and wonders, by passing through a magical mirror. But Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Now it is time to pay the price.
Tom Waits, incidentally, plays the Devil.
Ledger had the lead (but not the title role — that’s Christopher “Captain Von Trapp” Plummer) and his death threw the devil’s monkey wrench into production.
Gilliam solved things by casting three actors to replace Ledger: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. They share the role with Ledger, his character now a shape-shifter in the mode of Dr. Who and his many incarnations. The film’s due out this fall.
An un-cursed aside: Depp, Farrell and Law donated their pay to Ledger’s daughter Matilda.
See still more photos of Parnassus/Ledger.
(Images supplied by WENN.)