‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ Struggling To Find U.S. Buyer

Heath Ledger can obviously currently be seen in every cinema around the world playing The Joker in The Dark Knight. And while his performance is getting rave reviews, and has helped the Batman film to become the biggest box-office hit of the year, it’s not the deceased actor’s last film.

That honour goes to The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam movie that Ledger was working on when he died. After his untimely death, the plot was changed slightly to allow Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to step in to the role, playing the same character by way of shapeshifting.

So we have a Terry Gilliam film, which are always great, four huge actors, one of whom has a level of intrigue surrounding him after his death, and a parallel world-dealing plot to contend with. Unfortunately what we don’t have at the moment is a U.S. distributor willing to pick up the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gilliam’s history of non-commercial flops is putting a lot of buyers off, in spite of the bankability of the film being Heath ledger’s last. Which I find totally bizarre to say the least.

I wanted to see this film as soon as I heard about it, and that was even before Ledger passed away and Depp et al filled his shoes. Is the film industry so concerned about the bottom line these days that it won’t take even the slightest gamble?