Updated Trailer of Heath Ledger's Last Movie - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Images via Just Jared



Wikipedia describes the film's plot thus:

In the present day, immortal 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) leads a traveling theater troupe that offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in his possession. Members of the troupe include a sleight of hand expert, Anton (Andrew Garfield), and a dwarf (Verne Troyer), Percy Parnassus had been able to guide the imagination of others through a deal with the Devil (Tom Waits), who now comes to collect on the arrangement, targeting the doctor's daughter (Lily Cole). The troupe, which is joined by a mysterious outsider named Tony (portrayed by Ledger, Depp, Law, and Farrell),embark through parallel worlds to rescue the girl.



Vanity Fair, meanwhile, notes on it's August 10th issue:



"The phantasmagorical dreamscapes in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus are, judging by the newly released trailer, as wildly, awesomely imaginative as anything director Terry Gilliam has done since his absurdist animations in Monty Python’s Flying Circus: stepping stones floating among cosmically large high-heeled shoes; Tom Waits morphing into a cobra snake; a hot-air balloon (that Gilliam staple) made of a dozen faces; giant flying jellyfish… (As a diehard fan of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, another film that dissolves the curtain between theater and fantasy, I was disappointed only by the extent to which the director has relied on computer graphics to craft his illusions.)



The film was Heath Ledger’s last. From the few clips we of his performance, Ledger’s manic theatricality stands up to Gilliam’s, and might even live up to his own Oscar-winning tour-de-force as the Joker in The Dark Knight. In the August issue, Peter Biskind wrote about the actor’s final days—he died of a lethal mix of prescription medication halfway through the filming of Parnassus—and about how working on this film provided Ledger with daily respite from personal tumult".







Other Heath Ledger posts in Lunatica



A humble tribute to Heath Ledger

Possibly last video footage of Heath alive

Heath Ledger portrait nominated for award

Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell to sub for Heath in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Heath Ledger's Unfinished Film:The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Spoiler Warning!
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on the condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all. The film is scheduled to be released sometime in 2009.

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Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell To Assume Heath Ledger's Last Role

It is taking three top names: Jude Law,Johnny Depp,Colin Farrell– to step into Heath Ledger's final role, in the unfinished movie "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", according to a rep for Law.

Speaking to the BBC, Law's spokeswoman confirmed that the three actors would play Ledger's role of Tony. She was unaware, however, as to how the part would be restructured in the film, which deals with magic.

Ledger, 28, was still shooting the $30-million movie, directed by Terry Gilliam and costarring Christopher Plummer, when he was found dead from an accidental overdose of prescription medicines on Jan. 22.

The BBC speculates that the production will retain its original footage of Ledger, with Law, Depp and Farrell each playing different versions of Tony.

The weekend before Ledger's death, he and Plummer had both completed the London portion of the movie's shoot and were due to continue filming the following week in Vancouver, Canada. Production was suspended when the tragedy struck.

At the time the production left England, Plummer told PEOPLE, "Heath was in very high spirits. He was just enjoying himself tremendously. It's a rather fanciful script, and he was wonderful in this role."

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