The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

• All I Want for Christmas is ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

  Published on: August 31, 2009

  By Shannon Nystedt
  movieset.com
  
  It’s official! Sony Pictures Classics plans to release Terry Gilliam's new movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus on Christmas Day!  The film features the final screen performance by the late Heath Ledger, and an all star cast including Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield and Verne Troyer.  After Ledger’s death, to save the project Gilliam decided to keep the footage he’d already shot of Ledger’s character in the movie’s ‘real world’ sequences, and cast a new actor, or as it turned out, actors (Depp, Farrell and Law), to fill out the film’s fantasy sequences. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus makes it’s North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 18 and is released in the UK on October 16, but if you don’t have any plans to visit Toronto or the UK, you’ll just have to wait till Christmas.
  
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• Gilliam's B.C.-made movie set for gala screening in Toronto

  Published on: August 5, 2009

   

  Other local films form an impressive list

  By Glen Schaefer, The Province

  
  
  
   

  Doctor Parnassus star Verne Troyer and director Terry Gilliam were also at the Cannes filmfest with their movie.

  Photograph by: Michael Buckner, Getty Images

   

   

  British director Terry Gilliam's fantasy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which he finished filming in Vancouver with actors Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law last year after star Heath Ledger died, heads the list of B.C.-made movies screening at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

  Ledger filmed his scenes in London, but died of a drug overdose in New York in January 2008 before filming could resume in Vancouver. Gilliam and Vancouver producer Bill Vince resumed filming that February, with the three other stars playing alternate versions of Ledger's character. The movie is about a travelling magician (Christopher Plummer) who tries to escape a deal with the devil (Tom Waits).

  Vancouver producer Vince was himself struggling with cancer during filming and died that June. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premiered at Cannes last May and is set for a gala screening at the Toronto festival.

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• The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus - Screendaily review

  Published on: May 22, 2009

  Dir:Terry Gilliam. Fr-UK-Canada. 122mins.

  Terry Gilliam has always seemed like the last apostle of unfettered fantasy in an age insistent on prosaic reality. The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus is a typically staunch defence of the transformative power of the imagination and its ability to change the world.

  This is the purest expression of Gilliam’s distinctive sensibility in a long while, complete with outbursts of Pythonesque humour, entrancing dream landscapes, strange creatures, a dapper devil and a wise midget. It is an incredibly rich stew of a film and an often wilfully eccentric proposition for a mainstream audience. Despite the attractions of a stellar cast, its appeal will be largely confined to loyal Gilliam fans and those seeking a last look at the legacy of the late Heath Ledger, who died during the film’s production. The end credits for Imaginarium bill it as a film from Heath Ledger and friends.

  A reunion of Gilliam with Charles McKeown, his screenwriter collaborator on Brazil (1985) and The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988), Imaginarium features many of the preoccupying themes and visual trademarks of Gilliam’s career. In many respects it has the air of a fond and perhaps final return to some very familiar ground. Christopher Plummer’s Dr Parnassus  even feels like the kind of  doddering seer of a figure who would seem very much at home in the company of Gilliam’s liars, rogues and vagabonds like Munchausen and Don Quixote.

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