Short version: Despite its flaws, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus still offers some jaw-dropping visuals, fine performances and showcases a fantastically creative imagination that make it worth seeing.

Screen Rant’s Ross Miller Reviews The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

There are a handful of directors out there – including Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch and The Coen brothers – whose new films are always considered to be cinematic events. Amongst that list of directors (for me) is Terry Gilliam, who I think is one of the most imaginative and creative filmmakers out there when it comes to the ideas and subsequent visuals that come the wild imagination he possesses.

Even when he’s at his weakest, Gilliam always offers something worth watching in my books, whether it be ambitious sci-fi (Twelve Monkeys) or almost self-indulgent fantasy (Tideland). So does his latest fantasy-laden film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus deliver yet again on that Gilliam charm? Thankfully yes, even if the film is not exactly perfect.

Happy Friday everyone! For the third Friday of October 2009, we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes new one-sheets for Toy Story 3, Did You Hear About The Morgans, The Canyon, The Descent: Part 2, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Princess and the Frog, Me and Orson Welles, Law Abiding Citizen, Lost, Daybreakers, Harry Brown, Burning Bright, Sherwood Horror, Saw VI, The House of the Devil, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Dear John, Edge of Darkness and The Spy Next Door.

In addition to that we have some photos for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan.

Let’s get to it.

Day Four marks the halfway point for Fantastic Fest, and I’ve already seen two of the best films of the festival so far. That really makes me wonder what they’re going to close things out with. There was Secret Screening #3 on Sunday, and it turned out to be Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and not the Michael Jackson concert rehearsal footage film, This Is It, as everyone expected. Personally, I think we got a good deal. We were able to enjoy Gilliam and Michael Jackson in the same evening… due to the Michael Jackson Dance Party held at midnight.

As the days become shorter, and the nights become cooler, there is one thing on the horizon that all of us are quickly becoming aware of – the arrival of a slew of exciting 2009 Fall Movies. What’s always been great about this time of year is that it’s not just about “horror films” or movies that are made to touch the holiday hearts that burgeon each year as turkey, Santa and New Year’s Eve stretch into the new year and beyond.

The menu is varied, wide open and we hope – satisfying. While we couldn’t list them all, please join us as we quickly chronicle what lies ahead in Screen Rant’s 2009 Fall Movie Preview!

Terry Gilliam’s (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, otherwise known to every inhabitant of Earth as the talented Heath Ledger’s final and unfinished film, has released some new, cool-looking shots.  These include glimpses of each of Ledger’s famous stand-ins, Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell.

One can’t help but wonder why three actors were cast to replace one, which brings me to my explanation of the film.  A traveling theater troupe holds in its possession a magical mirror that it allows paying customers to step through into a wooooooooorld of puuuuure i-ma-gin-aaation.  Said mirror was provided by the devil (who else would just be giving something like that away?), who comes for the payment previously promised and hightails it into the mirror with the daughter of the head of the theater troupe.  Theater troupe pursues, and we got ourselves a movie.

Ledger plays an outsider who joins the group; each new mirror-world they pass through chasing the devil finds him with a new appearance.  And there ya go.

This week:

Aliens invade the box office with District 9; get ready to see more Saw; Elvis talks Bubba Nosferatu; St Elmo’s Fire gets remade; Dennis Quaid and Tim Allen join Ron Shelton in Q School, while Maggie Q looks for a Priest; Godzilla may be going on the warpath again; Sony takes a dose of Doctor Parnassus and Wall Street 2 adds another cast member.

Box Office

It looks like originality won out at the box office for a change. Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 banked a cool $37 million over the weekend. The Peter Jackson produced Sci-Fi film had a negative cost of just $30 million and with great reviews it looks like this could do well in the long run too.

A full trailer has recently appeared online for Terry Gilliam’s latest fantasy flick, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The film stars the late Heath Ledger as Tony, a “mysterious outsider” who, along with a dwarf named Percy (Verne Troyer) and a magician named Anton (Andrew Garfield), helps to save the daughter (Lily Cole) of the immortal Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) from the Devil (Tom Waits). Yep, you read that right.

(This article was written by Screen Rant guest contributor Ryan Connors).

This afternoon at Comic-Con, Writer/Director Terry Gilliam introduced his latest creative endeavor: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

Before Gilliam arrived on stage, however, a montage of his work was shown followed by what looked to be behind the scenes interviews destined for DVD special features. He was then quickly presented with the Comic-Con’s own Ink Pot award for achievement in Film arts.

After receiving the award, Gilliam pretended that he was leaving the stage, before quickly re-taking his seat to promote his film.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam’s latest fantasy outing which sees the late Heath Ledger in his last ever role, is looking better and better every day. We’ve already posted some gorgeous images from the movie, as well as a minute-long clip featuring Ledger. The early reviews for Doctor Parnassus suggest, for the most part, that it’s something to look forward to.

Terry Gilliam’s upcoming fantasy movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premiered at Cannes yesterday. And the film, which sees the late Heath Ledger give his last role before his untimely death, has gotten a mixed reception, going by the first and early reviews of it.

We also have a minute-long clip of the movie that is a longer version of the Cannes festival preview video we reported on the other day. But before we get to that, here are some excerpts from the various reviews for Doctor Parnassus that have come out:

Last week Screen Rant reported on the first footage from Terry Gilliam’s upcoming fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which sees the late Heath Ledger in his last ever film role (he sadly never got to complete it, though). It wasn’t much (only about 16 seconds or so) but today Screen Rant has a batch of new images to give you more of a look at the movie.

Doctor Parnassus is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival today, so expect to hear the “thumbs up/thumbs down” verdict from the people who are lucky enough to be there and get in to see it. For those less fortunate, this latest set of images will have to do for now:

“Can I ask you a question – ‘Do you dream?’ Or should I say, ‘Can you put a price… on your dreams?’”

Recently the official website for this year’s Cannes Film Festival has made a video available which is a showcase of most of the movies that are playing there. Some of the footage we have already seen (such as Inglourious Basterds and Drag Me To Hell) but the majority of it is brand new, never before seen looks at the various movies.

Before his tragic and ill-timed passing, Heath Ledger was in the middle of making another film after his inspiring characterization of The Joker in The Dark Knight.

This last project that Heath Ledger worked on was The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

After Heath’s passing, big name actors Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp stepped in to play the role of Tony that Heath was playing to help finish the film. This Terry Gilliam-directed (Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas, Monty Python And The Holy Grail) fantasy film is about an extraordinary traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom.