Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"

Terry Gilliam is back in form to release "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" in October. The film features a dazzling cast - Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer and will go down in history as Heath Ledger's last film since his death in January 2008.

"For me, it was like, Let's just close up shop here, because without Heath I don't want to continue on this project. He was so central and so important. And everyone just kept beating me up, saying, ''No, you have to keep going for Heath. He wanted to see this film.'' Then we made the quantum leap: What if we get three actors to replace him? Johnny was the first person I called. I said, ''Would you consider helping finish Heath's part?'' And he said, ''Done, I'm there.'' Same with Jude and Colin. I had no confidence that it would work. It was just that I didn't know what else to do, so let's just gamble and do it. Because I was determined that Heath's role was not just going to disappear.

I don't think it's ever happened before that a main actor dies, and three A-list actors come in and take over his part. It tells you how much they cared about him. It was unbelievably brave and foolish. There was no time to prepare. We had Johnny for one day, three and a half hours. He just came in and did it. I'd shown them some clips of some of the stuff that Heath had done. I didn't know that it was going to work, but it did.

There's so much luck involved with this movie. There's a magic mirror Tony goes through, and he's wearing a mask. It wasn't even in the script. It just kind of happened. Each one of the choices that were forced upon us improved the film. I've been saying Heath co-directed it — he forced me to do all these things differently, to make a better film than I was making.

Everybody in the cast and everybody in the crew was determined that this film would be finished and everybody worked longer, harder, and somehow we got through it. It was really people's love for Heath that propelled this thing forward." - Terry Gilliam on Heath Ledger's death

This full length trailer looks amazing! It's lush, dark, whimsical and chilling. While many are focusing on the film as Heath Ledger’s last, I'm totally excited to have another piece of Gilliam magic. Gilliam had a lot to work with having very difficult unforeseen situations befall him. You'd have to admire his creative and brilliant mind to re-craft the film. I've been a fan since the Monthy Python days, but it was certainly "Brazil" that blew me away!

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Having had so much fun with my Double Bill Tribute to John Hughes, it wouldn't be long before I run a series of Gilliam's best. There's nothing like enjoying the works of a fantastic director.