I enjoyed the Alice In Wonderland trailer well enough, though I definitely wasn’t thinking about it more than five minutes later. This first look (of any length) at The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam’s newest and possibly wildest film, has taken over my whole day.

Jam-packed with the “What the… oh shit, that’s cool!” imagery that Gilliam excels at, the trailer moves beyond the simple quirk of Wonderland and ends up at creatively-fisting-your-brain. Also, Tom Waits.

We get a good look at Johnny Depp, Colin Ferrell, and Jude Law who are filling in for the departed Heath Ledger in three of the other-worldly sequences, and they all look great. The world(s) themselves are dazzling in their bizarre detail, and may well end up ranking very high among Gilliam’s visual feasts. We can only hope the story is equally sumptuous. This is a film I’ve got my fingers crossed for- in a year of unexpected disappointments, I don’t want this to be one of them. Also, Tom Waits.

The (kinda) HD trailer is embedded below, or can be found on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus Support Site (least creative fan-site name ever). Release dates have been set for several countries, including France and Germany, but according to the ParnassusFilm twitter feed: “news on a US release date are coming soon…” Until then, keep yourself busy with the almost-active UK Website.

Also, Tom Waits.

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