Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
More Clips From The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
Three new video clips from Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus have appeared on the Comme Au Cinema site and have also been embedded below the break in this story. One of them features a scene we’ve seen already - twice before, in fact - but now finally in what would appear to be the correct aspect ratio. The others are new, however, and show us both storylines and special effects that the first clip didn’t even hint at.
As well as showcasing Heath Ledger as Tony, the clips give us a very good look at Andrew Garfield as Anton, Lily Cole as Valentina and - best of all - Christopher Plummer as the titular doctor.
There are still plenty of secrets to be revealed when it comes to Pixar’s Up, and that even goes for those lucky folks to have seen the 45 minute preview presentation (I’m looking at you, Peter Sciretta). The latest juicy crumb to have fallen from the high table reveals the basic design of the film’s main villain. I’ll pop the full size picture below the break (too tall to go at head of the story) and then you can tell me who - if anybody he looks like to you.
Editor’s Note: Because the villain doesn’t really appear in the first 45 minutes of the film, this might be considered a spoiler. Continue at your own risk.
9 is a computer animated film produced by Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Nightwatch), directed by former WETA Digital artist Shane Acker, and featuring the music of Danny Elfman. Based on Acker’s Academy Award-nominated 2005 film festival short (watch it on YouTube), 9 is a post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened. The official plot synopsis follows:
“When 9 (Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them.”
The group includes 1 (Christopher Plummer), a domineering war veteran; 2 (Martin Landau), an aged inventor; 5 (John C. Reilly), a stalwart mechanic; 6 (Crispin Glover), a visionary and artist; and 7 (Jennifer Connelly), a brave warrior. I like Acker’s unique art style which could be described as a darker/post apocalyptic version of what Tim Burton use to do, with a touch of LittleBigPlanet. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Watch the trailer in High Definition on Apple. 9 hits theaters on 9.9.09.
Terry Gilliam to Finish Imaginarium with Computer Generated Heath Ledger?
Posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta
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.
Status of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Unknown After Ledger’s Death
Posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson
If anyone remains unsure, Heath Ledger’s filming and voice work on The Dark Knight were completed before his unfortunate death yesterday (click here for latest updates). However, it would seem that the status of his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which marked his second collaboration with director Terry Gilliam following 2005’s The Brothers Grimm, is in jeopardy. Variety reports that the film had recently finished up its London leg of the shoot and had moved on to Vancouver to continue filming before the incident stunned the world. Producers of the $30 million indie film have not yet issued a statement regarding how Ledger’s death will impact production. Whether the role will be recast and whether the film can even proceed are not known.
Seeing that Ledger was the film’s largest star, with a sizable lead on co-stars Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits in terms of name recognition, this is detrimental. His casting was pivotal to the financing of the project. As most of us know, Gilliam’s films and almost-films have a long history of unfortunate events, budget issues and creative conflicts that put his latest films’ box office prospects on shaky ground. This was all painfully exemplified in the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha, which chronicled the downward spiral of Gilliam’s never completed $35 million The Man Who Killed Don Quixote with Johnny Depp in the lead. The final nail in that film’s coffin was the illness of star Jean Rochefort.
Doctor Parnassus follows an ancient traveling theater company “which arrives in modern London with a magical mirror that can transport its audience into fantastical realms of the imagination.” Plummer plays the title doctor, while Ledger’s role is that of an outsider who must fend off the devil in order to rescue the doc’s daughter, played by Lily Cole.
The trade also reports that Ledger was gearing up for his directorial debut, an adaptation of the 1983 Walter Tevis novel The Queen’s Gambit, about a female chess prodigy, rumored to star Juno phenom Ellen Page.
