How is it that I have not heard anything about this film until now? I feel like I might have just officially qualified as a failure at life.
Written/directed by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame). Heath Ledger (his final performance, no less). Johnny Depp. Colin Farrell (Okay, I don’t like him so much…maybe In Bruges… but he’s quite famous). Jude Law. Christopher Plummer. TOM WAITS, for heaven’s sake… AS THE DEVIL!
What have I been doing with my life that the creation of this incredibly odd & intriguing film has slipped past my conscious recognition?? I think I remember hearing about something along the lines of people finishing Heath Ledger’s unfinished role, but I guess I always thought they meant The Dark Knight. So when it came out completely Heath, I forgot about what I’d heard.
Take a look at the IMDB synopsis:
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 travelling 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 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…
Apparently, Ledger died during filming, so they pieced together the rest of his role in dream sequences using Depp, Farrell and Law. And from what I can gather, it is a super weirdo flick, which had a hard time even finding a distributor here in the USA. But it’s scheduled for release in September, so they must have worked something out.
I’m not even sure what to make of this yet, but here are some photos I dug up of the main characters:
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Read More:
- Official movie site (not fully functional yet)
- Wikipedia entry
- A blog seemingly devoted to all things Dr. Parnassus (including a short video interview with Terry Gilliam, strangely called a teaser trailer and filled with all sorts of nonsense footage)
It seems like I’ve been anxiously awaiting this movie forever now. super weird movies always seem like the best movies to me, and with Terry Gilliam in the drivers seat and so many big names as starring roles, this seems like a weird movie that won’t get pushed out the way for once (I hope anyway).
[...] And Further Reading. [...]
[...] [[And if all this Parnassus talk is getting you confused, learn a bit more about the film in my previous Dr. Parnassus post.]] [...]
LOL where were you when everyone was talking about this?! Glad you finally caught up, its going to be an awesome film