The trades have spoken, and as always they’re telling us things we already know. Variety has confirmed reports from a couple of Canadian papers over
the past week that filming for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has restarted on stages in Vancouver. Says
Variety, “Ledger had completed filming the “realistic” sections, so
Depp, Farrell and Law will play physically transformed versions of his
character when he passes into the other worlds.” Old news there.
The producers, William Vince, Amy Gilliam and Samuel Hadida, added the following statement.
“Since the format of the story allows for the preservation of his
entire performance, at no point will Heath’s work be modified or
altered through the use of digital technology. Each of the parts played
by Johnny, Colin and Jude is representative of the many aspects of the
character that Heath was playing.“
That’s good news; nothing would be worse at this point than to see some obvious trickery going on with Ledger’s footage. The pic will be odd enough with the extra actors taking his place.
Finally, all fears aside, Tom Waits remains on board as the film’s
devil. That’s great news, since while At Play in the Fields of the Lord
had the role Waits was born for, this is at least the part he was
baptized to play.