I was really sad to hear about Heath Ledger. But I can't help wondering what happens now to all of the movies he still has coming out. Can they use computers to put him in? And what about Brad Renfro?
—Allie, Newport News, Virginia
The B!tch Replies: Before his death, Heath Ledger had finished filming his part as the Joker for The Dark Knight, and Warner Bros. has not announced any changes to the Batman sequel's July 18 release date. So there's that.
Brad Renfro also, apparently, left behind at least one completed performance before his passing last week. More on that in a moment.
Ledger's latest work, though, an unfinished fantasy movie directed by Terry Gilliam, is another matter altogether.
Producers have yet to address how, or if, they're going to save The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It was certainly nowhere near complete when the young actor passed away earlier this week.
Here's what we do know.
- Filming on Doctor Parnassus had been going on for about a month. A typical movie takes about six to eight weeks to shoot.
- The first leg of filming, which took place in London, was done. The second part, which involved shooting interiors in Vancouver, had not yet begun. It was supposed to start next week and go through early March.
- Ledger was reportedly on a break between those shoots when he died in New York.
- The production company has not said how much more footage it needed from Ledger or how it will handle the rest of the project. But at least one report indicates that filming has, at least temporarily, shut down.
Now, there are several ways filmmakers could handle this delicate situation, depending on how much more shooting Ledger was expected to do. When actor Oliver Reed, for example, died before completing his scenes for Gladiator, director Ridley Scott tweaked a few remaining shots using computerized cutting and pasting.
Brandon Lee famously died on the set of The Crow in 1993 with only eight days of production remaining. A stuntman stepped in as a body double, and the director used special effects to put Lee's face on the new body.
And you might recall that singer-actress Aaliyah had already shot some footage for the second and third installments of The Matrix series before she died in a plane crash in 2001. The Wachowski brothers tried to salvage her performance before recasting her part with Nona Gaye.
And after River Phoenix died outside of the Viper Room—also in 1993—producers simply scrapped his last project, the unfinished Dark Blood.
As for Renfro, Variety reports he completed filming an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' book The Informers before he passed away. The film's production house has given no indication that it plans to change anything, and no one picked up the phone when I called for comment.
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