The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Short description
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus follows a travelling show led by Doctor Parnassus, who can guide the imaginations of others. Audiences who step through a magic mirror in his performance enter a world shaped by their own desires. Parnassus hides an old bargain with the Devil, who appears as the smooth Mr. Nick, and the debt is coming due: his daughter Valentina is approaching the age at which she was promised to him. When the troupe takes in a mysterious stranger named Tony, he joins their efforts to attract enough souls to change Valentina's fate.
Terry Gilliam directed and co-wrote the film with Charles McKeown, and it is the twelfth of the fourteen features he has directed to date, arriving between The Brothers Grimm and The Zero Theorem. Christopher Plummer plays Parnassus, with Lily Cole as Valentina, Heath Ledger as Tony, Andrew Garfield as Anton, Verne Troyer as Percy and Tom Waits as the Devil. Ledger died during production, and three actors completed the role across different realities. The film had a budget of about 30 million USD and took roughly 62 million USD worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 157,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.4 from about 2,957. A critics' rating of 6.1 from 192 reviews sits close to those audience figures, suggesting a mixed but not hostile response across all three groups.
What's left behind the scenes
- Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law donated all their earnings from filming this movie to Heath Ledger's daughter, Matilda, to secure her financial future.
- Even before it became known that Tony would be played by Heath Ledger, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Tom Cruise were among the candidates. The latter even offered to play Tony after Heath's death.
- In the episode with Johnny Depp, boats with portraits of people – Princess Diana, James Dean, Rudolph Valentino – float down the river. All three were idols of generations and died young.
- For this film, Terry Gilliam did storyboarding for the first time in many years.
- Christopher Plummer was one of the first actors chosen for the film.
- After the death of the lead actor Heath Ledger, the film crew found themselves in a difficult situation: some material had already been shot, but it was not enough. Soon a decision was made: according to the plot, Tony goes through a magical mirror of Doctor Parnassus, and after that moment his appearance will change – Tony will be played by three actors (Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law).
- Filming took place from December 9, 2007, to April 15, 2008.
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