Terry Gilliam

Surprise! Chicago International Film Festival Screens ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’

PatrickMcD — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:03:41 -0600

CHICAGO – “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas,” the long anticipated final film of Heath Ledger, directed by Terry Gilliam, was previewed last night at the Chicago International Film Festival at their “surprise’ screening.

The Audience Anticipates the Surprise Screening at the Chicago International Film Festival, October 20, 2009.
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Patrons gained entrance to the film by wearing an official Chicago International Film Festival clothing. Festival Artistic Director Michael Kutza got into the spirit, coordinating a photo shoot of the audience before the feature presentation.

Festival Founder and Artistic Director Michael Kutza and Patrick McDonald, October 20, 2009.
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

The buzz about what film it could possibly be was palpable as everyone was seated. Many votes were cast for the Robert Downey/Guy Ritchie “Sherlock Holmes,” and as the surprise film also began in London the possibility was still there. When the title card came up, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas,” a rousing burst of applause was heard.

This major preview was directed by Terry Gilliam, and concerns a troupe of actors performing their traveling show to modern Londoners. It features the mysterious Doctor Parnassas (Christopher Plummer) and his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). They pick up a prominent charity director along the way named Tony (Heath Ledger) and the secrets of the Imaginarium begin to unfold.

Those secrets will be revealed on a 2009 Christmas Day Opening. The audience spilled out of the surprise screening extremely pleased, knowing that again the Chicago International Film Festival continued their tradition of being the at the forefront with major releases and quality festival fare.

”Best of the Fest” is tonight, October 21, 2009. The Chicago International Film Festival wraps up October 22th. Click here for details.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Interview: Monty Python’s Terry Jones to Appear in ‘Holy Grail’ Chicago Screening

PatrickMcD — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:59:09 -0600

CHICAGO – Monty Python member and Holy Grail co-director Terry Jones will be attending a “Meet the Maker” screening at Chicago’s Lakeshore Theater on Saturday, May 9.

Jones, a founding member of the legendary Monty Python troupe, cut his comedic teeth in 1960’s British television, working with writing partner Michael Palin on shows like David Frost’s “The Frost Report”.

‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ (1975) was born from the successful TV show, and Jones took on the director’s responsibilities along with fellow Pythoner and soon-to-be-notable film director Terry Gilliam.

Sir Robin meets the 3-headed Knight(left to right) Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman and Michael Palin in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’
Photo credit: Monty Python, Ltd.

Besides participating in the Lakeshore Theater screenings on Saturday at 6 and 9pm, Terry Jones will also be conducting a comedy writing seminar in Chicago with Monty Python historian Kim “Howard” Johnson at the Chicago’s iO. Tickets are still available for the 1:30pm session on Saturday, May 9th.

HollywoodChicago.com spoke with Terry Jones via phone to ask about Holy Grail, his writing partnership with Michael Palin and why he is in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

HollywoodChicago.com: According to all production accounts, the filming of the Holy Grail was chaotic, dirty and depressive at times. Did you have a good laugh when the film became a success, then a cult classic, they a big beautiful Broadway baby?

Terry Jones: (Laughs) It was scary making the film. After the first day’s filming, I went around to everyone and said ‘don’t panic’, because we’d never made a movie before and we’d never directed ourselves.

Early in the process, we were up this mountainside in Scotland. We were doing the first shot and Graham [Chapman, who played King Arthur] was shaking. We didn’t know why, but it turned out he was trying to quit drinking and was going ‘cold turkey’. So he had the shakes.

And when first shot of that day took place the camera suddenly sheared its gears. The cameraman opened the camera, and all the bits just fell out. That was the only camera we had that could do sound, so Terry [Gilliam, the co-director] just figured out what we could do with a mute camera.

It turned out we were doing ‘the gorge of eternal peril’ scene, but nobody would go over the rickety bridge. So we had to walked around the gorge of eternal peril for an hour and a half to shoot on the other side.

We didn’t get much done that day, with only a five and week shooting schedule.

HC: Is the function of a writing partner, as practiced with the great Michael Palin, simply to make each other laugh? Or is it more?

TJ: Essentially you have to make each other laugh. That’s the key thing. Mike and I started writing together, but eventually we gave that up. I’d write at my place and he’d write at his and then we’d meet and read out what we had. It was really like tag team writing.

We still had an input to each sketch, but just we didn’t do it at the same time. Examples are the Spanish Inquisition sketch and ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’ from ‘The Meaning of Life’, Mike started them and I added my bit.

Renaissance Man Terry Jones Today
Photo credit: Terry Jones

HC: How did World War 2, as it effected Britain, consequently effect your generation of post war children, and how do you think it manifested itself into the evolution of the brand of humor that the Python’s created?

TJ: Well, that question certainly gets the mind working (laughs). I grew up austere, and didn’t meet my father until I was 4-1/2 years old. I remember it to this day, because he was stationed during the war in India and didn’t come back until well after it was over.

I grew up too with an anti-authority factor. The Labor Party put in a sweeping socialist agenda and I felt a change in the air, with the old guard being challenged.

In the 1960s, we did feel we were going to organize a better world.

HC: The Pythons are often compared to The Beatles when it comes to the revolutionary change they brought their particular brand of art and the divergent personalities they both had. Was there ever a time within the Python universe that you felt like the Beatles in 1970?

TJ: Not really. We always got on, even though we had our share of fights and feuds. In a way, we actually get long too well now, which is why we can’t write anything together any more, because we’re too polite and like each other too much (laughs).

HC: David Frost was recently in the film news with the movie Frost/Nixon. What memories do you have working with him?

TJ: Mike and I worked with David Frost on ‘The Frost Report’, working on CDMs – which means continuing developing monologues – we’d supply jokes for that.

Frost wanted to produce the Python shows initially and had John Cleese under contract with his company. John didn’t want him to produce it, we didn’t see it that way either, we wanted the BBC to produce it. So John said ‘he can sue me if he likes’. And I think that’s what happened (laughs).

HC: My favorite character of yours is the Straight man in the Wink-Wink Nudge Nudge sketch. What is your favorite Python character that you played?

TJ: I suppose I would say the waitress in the ‘Spam’ sketch and the harassed housewife in ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’ from ‘Meaning of Life’.

HC: You’ve performed in one of the most famous comedy troupes in show business history, you’ve directed highly regarded films, and are by description a writer, medieval historian, poet, purveyor of newspaper editorials and a man who is not afraid to take his clothes off on film. What is the encore for this heroic life?

TJ: Well, currently I’m in Kalamazoo, Michigan (laughs), attending the world’s largest academic medieval conference and in three hours time I’m going to talk about the dating of John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. Which is actually very interesting.

I’ve been lucky enough from the films and TV shows to have just enough income coming where I can do things that don’t necessarily make money. Like coming to Kalamazoo.

HC: Which sketches in Holy Grail did you and Michael Palin write?

TJ: It’s hard to remember. The whole concept started with something Mike had written, with Patsy and the coconuts. Did we write the swallow stuff? I can’t remember.

HC: What do you want to tell the audience at the screening on Saturday that you’ve never told anybody about the filming of Holy Grail?

TJ: I hope I can think of something (laughs). I’m sure it will be a revelation.

HC: Care to comment on this statement regarding my experience with watching Monty Python as a kid: If it wasn’t for Monty Python I never would have understood the revolution beyond my small town Indiana roots…

TJ: I’m flabbergasted.

’Comedy Writing with Terry Jones’, May 9th, 1:30pm at the Chicago iO, 3541 N. Clark, AND ‘Meet the Maker’ with Terry Jones and a screening of ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’, May 9th, 6pm and 9pm, at the Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway in Chicago.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

In the Forums: ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘10,000 B.C.,’ ‘Drag Me to Hell,’ Pixar’s ‘Up’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:23:15 -0600

CHICAGO – While our discussion forums are an unfettered venting ground for all of our readers, we also originate a wide array of must-read news there from other trusted, high-quality entertainment publications.

For those of you who don’t frequent our forums and for those of you who typically read us via RSS or our daily mailing, the purpose of this In the Forums package is to bring the news we’re publishing in our forums front and center into our news section, RSS feed and daily mailing.

As you can see from our first In the Forums below, the package consists of a compilation of links to the most interesting and important local and national news items originating from our forums.

A preview of “The Incredible Hulk” trailer is now online.
Watch it now here!

The New York Times has visited the set of “The Dark Knight” and has released new production stills.
See them now here!

Despite atrocious reviews from critics everywhere, “10,000 B.C.” has brought in $35.7 million in first weekend.
Read more here!

Justin Long will now star in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell”.
Read more here!

Filming on Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is back under way in Vancouver.
Read more here!

Disney says Pixar’s 2009 film “Up” will be released in digital Disney 3D.
Read more here!

The Neo-Futurists conclude their last Chicago theater series with “Picked Up,” which is a series of six never-before-seen television pilots performed live on stage.
Read more here!

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Despite Heath Ledger’s Death, Warner Bros. Presses on With Joker’s Viral Marketing For ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:34:35 -0700

CHICAGO – Once the swarm of sorrow hit the world on Jan. 22, 2008 following news of Heath Ledger’s death, questions soon ensued about its impact on Chris Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”.

While the status of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is entirely in limbo, “The Dark Knight” had completed filming and is in post-production. Still, followers wondered how Warner Bros. would tactfully react with its viral marketing and how it would advertise Ledger’s dark and crazed Joker character.

HollywoodChicago.com just received an answer: the show is going on. Our repeatedly reliable source (who was awarded the cell phone-embedded cake in Chicago from a WhySoSerious.com viral marketing effort) is back with new news from moments ago:

A WhySoSerious.com viral marketing movie
poster for “The Dark Knight”.
Image credit: IMDB

Good evening, Adam!

Chicago Joker phone here. I just got a text at 10:49 p.m. on the cake phone that said $30 was added to my account and the phone is now good until March 29, 2008.

After looking at the account information [from] the phone [that] was initially received in [Dec. 2007], I found the phones were set to expire tomorrow (Jan. 30, 2008). With the addition of the extra minutes, this means the viral campaign lives on despite the untimely death of Heath Ledger (may he rest in peace).

I have looked on message boards and several of the other cities have also confirmed that their phones have received extensions until the end of March.

I applaud Warner Bros. for continuing the marketing campaign and not letting the fans down. We all have the greatest respect for Mr. Ledger and I believe we all know how to separate the Joker character from Heath. I cannot wait for the next viral [campaign] to start. I will keep you updated as always. Thanks!

~ Vlkers54

3:25 p.m. update on Jan. 30, 2008: The source above just wrote back with another update. This information is from another informed Superhero! Hype message board member known as ianskyvox.

I just did a little bit of research [that] may shed some light on the scenario. Apparently whenever you add credit to pay-as-you-go phones with Verizon (such as these) the amount you add is good for two months.

Since we got the phones [on Dec. 4, 2007], they probably activated the accounts in late [Nov. 2007] so they could be shipped out and put in the cakes. Two months after that would be today (Jan. 29, 2008). Since the accounts were renewed today [on Jan. 29, 2008], they expire again on March 29, 2008 (in exactly two months).

There’s a possibility this is what was actually going to happen all along even if we hadn’t tragically lost our clown prince. This could even go on for months and months on end. [We could receive] another message on March 29, 2008 saying the accounts have been renewed again.

Our last [text] before this did say: “It’s time to be patient.”

Vlkers54 added: “It seems they might not have had a plan until after Jan. 30, 2008 to begin with. We will have to just be patient as [the Joker] has instructed us to be.”

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead in Manhattan Apartment at 28

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:06:23 -0700

CHICAGO – Heath Ledger has been found dead in his Manhattan apartment, according to CNN. He was 28. Police sources have called the death an “accidental overdose,” according to MSNBC, and Ledger was “found naked and unconscious with pills strewn all around him”.

CNN has published the following details about his death in his Broome Street apartment:

Heath Ledger in “Casanova” in 2005.
Photo credit: IMDb

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead [on] Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said. The Academy Award-nominated actor was 28.

“Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed,” police spokesman Paul Browne told CNN. “This is being looked at as a possible overdose.”

The pills appeared to be over-the-counter sleeping medication, said police spokeswoman Barbara Chen. Ledger was unresponsive when he was found by a housekeeper who had gone to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse in the Soho apartment, Browne said.

Ledger was declared dead at about 3:30 p.m., Browne said. In 2005, the actor played Ennis Del Mar in “Brokeback Mountain” about two cowboys who had a secret relationship. The role earned him [an] Oscar nomination.

Ledger was born in Perth, Australia. He has a young daughter with [“Brokeback Mountain” co-star] Michelle Williams. The couple separated in 2007.

Ledger’s first American film was the teen comedy “10 Things I Hate About You” in 1999 and he immediately attracted attention from Hollywood. He passed up several scripts before taking a role in the revolutionary war drama “The Patriot” in 2000 and “A Knight’s Tale” in 2001.

He also played a role in “Monster’s Ball,” “Ned Kelly,” “The Brothers Grimm,” “Lords of Dogtown,” “The Four Feathers,” “The Order,” “Candy and “Casanova”.

“In a way, I was spoon fed a career,” he told the Glasgow Herald in 2005. “It was fully manufactured by a studio that believed it could put me on their posters and turn me into a product. … I hadn’t figured out properly how to act, and all of a sudden, I was being thrown into these lead roles.”

“I felt that choices were being made for me. I feel this has been my time now to find the good stories and test myself,” Ledger told the Glasgow Herald in the 2005 interview. “It has been an interesting year where I finally have a sense of accomplishment.”

“He was just so respected in the industry,” said In Touch Weekly senior editor Kim Serafin [on Tuesday]. “It’s just horribly tragic. He was just a fine actor and a good person, so this is horribly sad and very unexpected.”

Though the New York Times initially reported on Tuesday that Ledger was found in an apartment owned by actress Mary-Kate Olsen, a spokesperson for the actress at the Sundance Film Festival later on Tuesday told the New York Times the apartment was not Olsen’s.

CNN says hordes of people, photographers and reporters congregated outside Ledger’s police-guarded apartment building after news of his death surfaced. Ledger was named Heathcliff Andrew after the main characters of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said in a written statement on Tuesday that it mourns Ledger’s death and says his “Brokeback Mountain” portrayal of Del Mar “changed hearts and minds in immeasurable ways”. He began acting at a local theater as a child.

A source told MSNBC.com’s Courtney Hazlett that Ledger had been turning down roles lately.

His People biography can be found here. His IMDb filmography can be found here. Ledger is survived by daughter Matilda Rose. His death throws into disarray the upcoming films “The Dark Knight” and Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which we covered on Dec. 18, 2007.

In Nov. 2007, the New York Times published some alarming quotes from Ledger revealing behavioral tics that could be interpreted as warning signs for severe distress and anxiety:

…as often happens when he throws himself into a part, he is not sleeping much.

“Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” [Ledger] said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted and my mind was still going.”

One night he took an Ambien, which failed to work. He took a second one and fell into a stupor only to wake up an hour later [with] his mind still racing.

Even as he spoke, Ledger was hard-pressed to keep still. He got up and poured more coffee. He stepped outside into the courtyard and smoked a cigarette.

He shook his hair out from under its hood, put a rubber band around it, took out the rubber band, put on a hat, took off the hat [and] put the hood back up. He went outside and had another cigarette.

Polite and charming, he nonetheless gave off the sense that the last thing he wanted to do was delve deep into himself for public consumption. “It can be a little distressing to have to overintellectualize yourself” is how he put it a little apologetically.

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere said on Tuesday on his impression of Ledger from previous meetings:

He never gave me a guarded response to questions [and] was always cool about encounters. He liked to scrunch his face up instead of smile when I took his picture. He was shy, private and “moody”.

Maybe he should have allowed less of those feelings in because this is totally friggin’ ridiculous. Heath Ledger dead?

A long lifetime of great performances lay ahead for Ledger. He could have easily kept working into old age as he never gave a damn about playing hunks.

Now his life is over, his daughter is fatherless and Warner Bros. is looking at some kind of uncertain future for “The Dark Knight” [in] which Ledger plays the Joker alongside co-stars Christian Bale and Michael Caine.

We all know what Warner Bros. (the distributor of Chris Nolan’s second Batman film) is going to say about this this tragic news. They’ll say the same thing that Warner Bros. said about James Dean’s death when he was killed in a car crash in Sept. 1955 with two movies yet to open (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”).

They’ll say: “This is a very sad time for all of us and not a time for [discussing] grosses.”

But you know and I know that the [Warner Bros.] hard ballers are asking themselves right now: “Will this adversely impact ‘The Dark Knight’ box office, will it enhance it or will it have no impact?” The latter, I would think.

Despite early speculation to the contrary, a spokesman for the New York Police Department reports that there was no “obvious indication of suicide”. The pills found at the scene were reportedly sleeping pills: one a prescription medication and the other over-the-counter medication.

/Film added on the topic in its Tuesday report: “In a video interview in correlation with his press days for ‘I’m Not There,’ he seems disoriented and possibly under the influence.” An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.

The Hollywood Reporter added on Tuesday:

Ledger was in the middle of a break from shooting Terry Gilliam’s fantasy adventure “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” and was due back on set in Vancouver later in the week. The film’s producers were in meetings Tuesday afternoon in an effort to work around the tragedy.

“The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news,” Warner Bros. President Alan Horn and Warner Bros. Pictures President Jeff Robinov said in a statement. “The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.”

Ledger was set to appear in Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia” before dropping out to star as the Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Over at Variety on Tuesday, we hear from Focus Features (the specialty label for “Brokeback Mountain”):

A Focus representative was in shock over the news and CEO James Schamus, who co-wrote [“Brokeback Mountain”] with Ang Lee, issued a statement lamenting the loss.

“Heath Ledger was a courageous actor and a great soul,” Schamus said. “He gave us the gift of sharing his fearless and beautiful love – of his craft and of all who worked with him – for which all of us will be eternally grateful.”

As for “The Dark Knight,” Variety says Ledger’s sudden death will present difficult challenges for how to market the high-profile film going forward.

“The Joker character is dealing with chaos and life and death and a lot of dark themes,” one insider with knowledge of the [the Joker’s viral marketing] campaign said. “Everyone is going to interpret every line out of his mouth in a different way now.”

9:02 p.m. update on Jan. 22, 2008: TMZ has just reported how Ledger’s body was discovered:

Here’s the way it went down. A cleaning lady for Heath arrived at the apartment first followed soon thereafter by a masseuse. They both entered the room at around the same time and discovered Heath’s lifeless body.

The cleaning lady called police. The masseuse, we’re told, called the bodyguard for the Olsens. She called him because they’re friends and he’s an EMT. The bodyguard was around the block at Ashley’s and he immediately went over. By the time he arrived, the cops were already there.

We’re also told it appeared Heath “had been dead for a while” and there were no visible signs of trauma. There was a pill bottle on the nightstand.

Also, TMZ reported on Tuesday that Ledger recently gave an “eerily prophetic” interview to FOX in Cleveland where he said: “I feel good about dying because I feel alive through her.” He was talking about his young daughter, Matilda.

11:36 a.m. update on Jan. 23, 2008: An autopsy for Heath Ledger conducted on Wednesday morning was “inconclusive” and his cause of death will take 10 to 14 additional days, a medical examiner’s spokeswoman told CNN on Wednesday. CNN added:

Flowers, notes and a candle left by mourning fans remained on the sidewalk outside the Soho apartment building, but only journalists and the occasional tourist were gathered there Wednesday morning.

Ledger’s former girlfriend – actress Michelle Williams, who was shooting a movie in Sweden – was informed of his death late Tuesday night, a movie production company spokesman said.

Williams left early Wednesday morning with 2-year-old daughter Matilda Rose, the spokesman said.

3:31 p.m. update on Jan. 23, 2008: The production for “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” has been shut down, according to Us:

“I just got the call [on Tuesday] saying everyone was being let go,” [an] on-set source tells UsMagazine.com. “We were supposed to start this weekend, but obviously they fired everyone today. They don’t know yet what they are doing with the footage that was already shot.”

Discuss this on our discussion boards here.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com