Heath Ledger Follow-Up
I just want to warn anyone commenting below... This is ultra sad news, and I don't need no lip about it. That out of the way, as I'm sure you all know, Heath Ledger passed away on Tuesday, and though there's no definitive news of the cause, it does seem it was accidental. Heath Ledger was a great talent, and seemed to be a genuinely warm and intelligent person who will be missed by many.
Naturally, though, thoughts start to turn towards his work in film, and how that's affected. So a few updates there, in case you're interested:
- The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam film Ledger was working on right when he passed, has been shut down. The film was about to move into shooting on green screen stages. Instead, everyone has been let go, and Gilliam has moved on to other projects. It's unlcear at this time what will be done with the half-shot movie.
- Warner Brothers has done a relatively classy thing, and shut down their Dark Knight website, here. Instead, there's a blank white space with a memorial, which you can also see to the right of this post. I say, bully for them. They've been concentrating very hard on the internet campaign for this movie, and to actually halt it half way through promotion, which I'm sure is costing them a lot of money and time, beyond just slapping up a picture on a website is, as I said, very classy and should be commended. Hopefully they'll leave it up for a while.
- So how about his work on The Dark Knight? Official word is that he was 100% wrapped and done with the movie, from filming, to ADR (essentially, re-dubbing dialogue), to SFX. Obviously, this doesn't paint a complete picture, as movies are often tweaked and re-shot until the last minute. It's good to know, though, that what seems like an excellent performance won't be marred by jarring out of place scenes, and may work as an effective tribute to the actor's life and work.
- And finally, what about the sequels? This is, and I feel ridiculous even writing this, a little bit of a spoiler for the second film. Rumor has it that The Joker would appear in the prospective third film, but in a one-scene cameo. Can it be written around? Will it be re-cast? Only time will tell.
Well, its going to seriously damage any future use of the Joker in this series, whether thats really an issue or not is questionable seeing as this is film, not print. There are plenty of stories that dont require the Joker to tell, hopefully they didnt cliffhanger anything regarding him in TDK.
I'm sure seeing him in the film when it does come out will add some melancholy to the experience, especially if he is as good in the role as I think he was.
The real question is, did playing this role damage Heath? If I remember right he was a method actor, so he was probably very deep into the psyche that motivates a character like this.
thanks for the update on all this stuff alex.
warner did the classy thing. kudos to them
and his death is definatly gonna make TDK awkward veiwing. its gonna be another crow no doubt.
the guy was a damn good actor and will be sadly missed. hopefully his swan song will be powerfull.
as for a sequal, re-casting would probably be awkward and some would see it as disrespectfull. so maybe CGI can save the day.
also sad about parnassuss. was loking forward to it. it had Tom waits in for crimminys sake! sucks that we wont get to see it. but very understandable.
I feel really sorry for Terry Gilliam, nearly every big budget hollywood film he's made has been cursed by one disaster after another. Its really quite amazing.
I think they should just bite the bullet and recast for the next film. It dosnt feel pretty but trying to dance around it with CGI and stuff will seriously limit things they can do with the character in the future. The might want to have the Joker as a prominant character in the future and need to be able to do that.