Probably not — but maybe! According to a new interview with Terry Gilliam, his The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — the film Heath Ledger was working on when he died — “will come out in Autumn,” right in the middle of Oscar season. Also, he swears it won’t be bad.
The director refutes claims that he was having trouble finding a distributor (“There’s this story running round that has absolutely no basis in truth at all, it started from a little blog and it’s all over the place but it’s good, it gives us free publicity”), and attempts to allay fears that Parnassus will be like his other recent movies: “I can say, hand on heart, that it’s really good … I just didn’t want to waste any moment of Heath in life or on screen and that’s Parnassus.”
Being among the unlucky few who paid to see Tideland in a theater, we still have our reservations about the film — in which Ledger’s role was somehow completed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell, and their co-stars include Tom Waits and Verne Troyer — but hey, Gilliam did, technically, make Brazil, so it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility that Parnassus might actually be good, we suppose. And if he’s crazy enough to make this thing, and someone’s crazy enough to release it during Oscar season, then surely they’ll be crazy enough to mount an awards campaign, right?
Final film ‘won’t waste Heath’ [Press Association]
Terry Gilliam Says ‘The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus’ Coming In The Fall [Playlist]
Earlier: Is Terry Gilliam’s Heath Ledger Movie Still in Trouble?
