News > No Depp for Doctor Parnassus, a CG Heath Ledger?

Written by Lucas C Haberstich

Well, last week's rumor is this week's flushed toilet.  There was talk of Johnny Depp stepping in to finish the remainder of Heath Ledger's role in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, but talk is all it was.  People magazine contacted actor Depp's representation and were told that "there have been no official talks, and he is currently working on Public Enemies for Michael Mann for Universal."

The magazine also talked with Heath's co-star in Imaginarium, Christopher Plummer who says that "Terry [Gilliam]'s throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture" and that "…because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people… using stills and I think they call it CGI…"

Apparently Plummer is not current on special effects technology, but a computer-generated Ledger face on another person's body can only achieve the appearance of the character and there's nothing in the article about how they would manage the speaking aspect of this trickery.  I appreciate the effort Terry Gilliam is putting forth regarding his film and his friend, but the last round of Star Wars movies taught me that CG characters typically can't act so any move in that direction fills me with dread and doubt in equal measure.