So Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” is not locked in for a September U.S. release? About a week ago we reported on an old article from a Florida paper that said the oddball film featuring Heath Ledger’s final performance was coming out at the beginning of the fall.
However, according to an article over at the Hollywood Reporter’s blog, the release date seems much more up in the air. According to them, interest in the film has died down, Lionsgate and Overture were reportedly keen early to, but that excitement seems to have waned.
Are there other problems at work? “That has fueled all sorts of rumors in indie circles, ranging from dissent over finances on the producers’ side to outsized expectations on the part of filmmakers,” THR writes.
There’s also a lot of random speculating in the piece we won’t bother regurgitating, basically concerns about how they’ll market it with a deceased star, why studios aren’t that interested, etc., but the biggest piece of concrete info says that a U.S. deal is expected soon with a mini-major or larger indie studio. Guess that September date was jumping the gun (maybe the main problem is the script was a fairly bizarro, convoluted mess to begin with?). We have a hunch it’ll be a major indie before its a mini-major, but well see.
“We’ve seen a little bit of footage,” Kate Ledger said. “He’d only completed, I think, about a third of the film. And then we’ve had some incredible actors — Johnny Depp and Jude Law and Colin Farrell — step in to complete it. And I think it’s going to be, yeah, amazing. Terry is amazing, and Heath always had such enthusiasm and interest in whatever Terry was doing.” [RiskyBiz via Vulture]