Gilliam was left lead-less after Ledger's death
Updated on 06 October 2009
Director Terry Gilliam tells how he completed his new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, after the death of leading man Heath Ledger. Stephanie West reports.
When the actor Heath Ledger died unexpectedly in New York last year, he was midway through shooting a film with the director, Terry Gilliam.
The death left Gilliam heartbroken and without his lead. Yet he managed to finish the film, using Ledger's friends - Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law - to complete the unshot scenes. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opens here next week.
Channel 4 News spoke to Gilliam and his daughter Amy, who produced the picture.
Director Terry Gilliam and members of the cast are in the UK to celebrate the film's long awaited launch.
Heath Ledger, the film's leading actor, died suddenly of an accidental overdose in January 2008 forcing Gilliam back to the drawing board in order to save the film he was half way through shooting.
The fantasy drama tells the tale of Doctor Parnassus and his "Imaginarium" - a travelling show where members of the audience get to live through their imaginations. But, after doing a deal with the devil to trade his immortality for youth dark forces begin to creep up with Doctor Parnassus and his travelling show.
Ledger stars as an interloper with a keen interest in Parnassus's daughter, played by model Lily Cole. Luckily for Gilliam most of Ledger's 'real world' scenes were finished before his death and three actors, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, were keen to step in and help finish the film. The actors now appear as three different aspects of the character's personality.
Stephanie West met Terry Gilliam and his daughter Amy.
Speaking about Heath Ledger Gilliam said he was a "phenomenal actor."
"Anything you throw at him he would just grab it and turn it in to something even more wonderful. He was so instinctive about his acting," he said.
"Most of the time on Parnassus I felt he was making the film and I was holding on to the tail of the tiger because every moment he was pushing it and I was feeling tired and he would energise us, me, everybody.
"He was very extraordinary and special and those of us who worked with him actually know how beyond extraordinary he was.
"He would have been the greatest actor of his generation."
Gilliam went on to say that he believed Parnassus was some of his "best work".
"In many ways it's both the most mature thing I've done and the most juvenile thing I've done," he said.
"Some people have said this might be an autobiographical film. That it's really just about me. Well I'm not going to admit to that.
"It is a lot of things that I've been through, my frustrations, my angers at the way things go, the success of films, the failure of films, the attempt to try and expand people's view of what's possible in the world so those are, I suppose, autobiographical elements - but the story has its own course to run."
