Ledger: Dead In Film’s First Scene
The film that Heath Ledger was working on when he died of an accidental drug overdose has been screened for the first time in Cannes today. And the irony? Ledger’s character is first glimpsed hanging from a bridge, apparently dead. Director Terry Gilliam describes this as a “homage to Roberto Calvi,” the banker to the Vatican found hanged from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. Here’s Todd McCarthy’s review: ‘Especially considering the trauma and difficulties stemming from Heath Ledger’s death during production and the fact that Terry Gilliam hadn’t directed a good picture in more than a decade, the helmer has made a pretty good thing out of a very bad situation in “The Imaginarium.”‘
