Last week The Sun reported that director Terry Gilliam had his sights on Johnny Depp to finish what remains of the late Heath Ledger’s role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. However, now comes word that Depp’s reps tell People that “There have been no official talks, and he is currently working on Public Enemies for Michael Mann for Universal.” But that doesn’t mean that the project will be shelved. Co-star Christopher Plummer says that Gilliam is working hard to find a way to finish the film, possibly even using a CGI:
“Terry’s throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture,” said Plummer. “[Gilliam is] trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI… Terry was a very good friend [of Heath’s]. He very wants to go on with the movie, and I can very much understand why. Because he wants to dedicate it to Heath, of course.”
I’m not quite sure what Plummer is trying to say, but it sure sounds to me like Gilliam is considering using computer generated character effects to finish some of Ledger’s remaining sequences.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Interesting, but I wonder what the public backlash would be if Gilliam actually CGI(d) Ledger’s unfinished performance.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
@ daniel
excellent point about the backlash. what most of the angry people would probably overlook, is that Gillaim is one of the hard-core directors that we CAN trust. in no way at all can I see Gilliam doing something without having the best possible intentions in mind. were this another director, i would certainly be worried, but i know in my heart that Gilliam will be searching for the best possible way to honor Heath and his last film.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I don’t think he could do it. I don’t think the technology is there or that Gilliam has the pull or the funds to develop it. Even the best likenesses take detailed scanning of the actors and usually use the actor for referencing the performance. I know it’s always moving but I think it would look fake and worse yet not be true to Heath Ledger’s performance, It would be an animator’s impression of Heath Ledger’s acting and I think it would ring false. I think the better move would be replacing him, perhaps alltogether if you can’t figure out a story point for the change.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:56 am
whell, maybe ilm could pull that off… but anyway - it would take immense funds.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
It’s possible to do ultra-realistic humanoid cg work in film. Plenty of films that have incorporated it and most people didn’t notice it.
There was a sequence in Batman Begins where Batman himself was “all” cg and no one noticed it at all. Along with the work the studio BUF has done for many of Fincher’s films.
It just has to be done right and in a low-key manner.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
why are you still quoting stories from The Sun?
January 30th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
To be fair, this story is from People magazine, not the Sun.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:10 am
Yeah I was going to say. lol