Dr. Parnassus’s Solution: Ledger Plus Depp, Law, and Farrell?

Johnny Depp will help Terry Gilliam get by with a little help from his friends. 

Well, somewhere or somehow Heath Ledger should be feeling proud, because it looks like it will take three men to fill his shoes in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

As Dave wrote soon after Ledger’s death, rumors had begun to fly that a quirk in the screenplay might allow Ledger’s part to be covered by multiple actors. Here’s the original idea as first explained in AICN:

“The rumor is that at certain points during the film the main character, which was played by Ledger, fell through magic mirrors and, I would assume, into different realities or fantasy lands. The word is that each time this happens (3 or 4 times in the movie) the character will be played by a different actor and Depp would be one of those actors (which makes sense why he can fit this into his schedule), the other two being actors just as well known as Depp.”

Well, now AICN is again reporting a rumor about who those additional actors will be. And the rumored names are Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

Hey, Jude…Law

Colin Farrell…as if you didn’t know.

This is a great solution, the more I think about it. First off, the whole idea of having the part played by four (counting Ledger) actors somehow fits into what I would call, for lack of a better term, the Gilliam aesthetic. Second, since each actor is only taking on a small part, it’s easy to grab high profile actors who otherwise might not be able to commit to the whole part. This way these three in-demand types can come in between their (presumably) multiple other projects, shoot a few scenes and then move on.

Remember, this is only a rumor, but it’s a great one, and I hope it’s true.