Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Two deaths, one broken vertebra – but still Gilliam makes it to Cannes


The last film Heath Ledger has ever made “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassius” has been shown at the film festival in Cannes. This film has had its fair share of bad luck. First the lead actor of the film Heath Ledger suddenly died. This tragedy initially made director Terry Gilliam decide to stop the production all together. If others wouldn`t have persuaded him into finishing the film in memory of Heath, the film would have never been made. To play Heath`s role, Gilliam casted Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel and Jude Law. Before they started filming the next tragedy occurred; producer Bill Vince suddenly died as well. Then Terry Gilliam himself was hit by a car and broke a vertebra, so his daughter had to take over. Despite all this bad luck the film was finished, but now it has not got a distributor yet. At the end of the festival many deals are made and hopefully this will happen for the film that will be known as “the last film ever to star Heath Ledger”.

Reaction: Two deaths, one broken vertebra – but still Gilliam makes it to Cannes

First of all I will explain why this is slightly British News: Terry Gilliam wrote for the Monty Python series. That is pretty much the only link I`m afraid.

I think it is a good decision to continue making the film. It would be such a shame if the last footage of Heath Ledger would have never been shown to the public. Besides that I think this is a very good film, because Terry Gilliam`s earlier work is very good too. His ideas are very original and his films are very imaginative en beautifully made. That kind of film is very suitable for a film in memory of Heath, because he played in many independent productions; for example “the Brothers Grimm” which was also directed by Terry Gilliam. Heath's death is a huge loss for the film industry, but luckily he has left a great heritage of beautiful films.

1 comment:

  1. Well Nicky,
    That is a lot of bad luck in one film production. I do hope for Gilliam that he will find a distibutor. I have never seen any of his films. Because of your article I am very eager to see the film. When will it be released in the Netherlands?

    ReplyDelete