Trailerrific: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

This just looks awesome! When Heath Ledger died, I was dreading what would happen to this movie. Ledger had only shot a couple of scenes, and they had to abandon the entire project or they had to reshoot all the scenes with him in it. Or so I thought. Instead Terry Gilliam chose another route: Ledger’s character enters three magical “worlds” and instead of recasting Ledger, in each of the different worlds this character is played by another actor. Johnny Depp. Colin Farrell. And Jude Law.

Here’s the description:

In the present day, immortal 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) leads a traveling theatre troupe—including a sleight of hand expert, Anton (Andrew Garfield), and a dwarf, Percy (Verne Troyer)— that offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in his possession. Parnassus had been able to guide the imagination of others through a deal with the Devil (Tom Waits), who now comes to collect on the arrangement, targeting the doctor’s daughter (Lily Cole). The troupe, which is joined by a mysterious outsider named Tony (portrayed by Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell) embark through parallel worlds to rescue the girl.

And of course the trailer:

Wow. The four actors surprisingly look pretty similar, and even though I was expecting it, it took me a while to realize who I was looking at. This looks pretty amazing, don’t you think?

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus – Release Date: 16 October 2009 (UK)