Ledger's Joker a Serious Topic

Thu., Jan. 24, 2008 2:49 PM PST by Joal Ryan

The Dark Knight posters ask, "Why so serious?" In the wake of Heath Ledger's death, the answer is because the movie has a situation.

"So far everything's been about the Joker," says Comics2Film.com founder Rob M. Worley. "Can they continue to put the Joker's face on this?"

Everything changed Tuesday when Ledger, who plays the greasepaint-caked criminal in the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, was found dead at the age of 28.

Warner Bros., the studio behind the comic-book franchise, was said to be mulling its marketing campaign for the $150 million movie, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader.

"It's one of those things that pops up in our business that you need to deal with," says Mitch Litvak, president of the L.A. Office, an entertainment marketing firm. "They're going to have a chance to sit back and think about it."

Fortunately for Warners, it has time. The film, which Ledger completed his work on last fall, isn't due out until July 18.

While the ad campaign may be tweaked, fans' interest won't be affected, Worley predicts. "If anything, they want to see it more now," he says. "There will be an almost spiritual component."

The situation looks to be trickier, if not more perilous, for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the Terry Gilliam fantasy Ledger was working on at the time of his death.

According to Variety, Ledger's name helped the independent production secure its $30 million budget. Without its biggest star, the movie has three options, the paper said: recast, shoot around Ledger's absence or call "cut."

Filming on Doctor Parnassus began last month. Ledger, who died in New York, had been shooting in London last week.

On Thursday, Gilliam and the producers said they "will be assessing how best to proceed."

"Heath was a great actor, a great friend and a great spirit," the statement said. "We are still in a state of deep shock, saddened and numb with grief."

If the movie is scrapped, it'll be the second time this decade that a Gilliam production has been so cursed. In 2000, the filmmaker started and stopped work on the never completed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote when his aged leading man suffered a back injury.

On a legacy note, if Doctor Parnassus doesn't recover, The Dark Knight will become Ledger's final film. And even Worley's not sure how he feels about that, about seeing Ledger, an actor of sensitivity who earned an Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain, go out on screen as a sick and sadistic villain.

Says Worley: "It's not like On Golden Pond, where it's this sweet sentimental sendoff that Henry Fonda had."