The sad and real truth of Heath Ledger’s death is slowly starting to be revealed as more and more news of his unfinished work starts to become known to the world. Which included a completed, but unreleased Modest Mouse video and a planned Nick Drake biopic.
In an Entertainment Weekly article [via Pitchfork], about the last film Ledger was working on prior to his death — director Terry Gilliam’s currently in-limbo, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — it is reported that Ledger and Gilliam first met about the role in 2007, while “Ledger was in London directing an as-yet-unreleased video for Modest Mouse.”
Ledger’s sudden death threatened to derail the project, a surrealistic fantasy about a traveling theater troupe. But Gilliam pressed on, recruiting Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to play different incarnations of Ledger’s character, a charismatic con man named Tony. Now, in the wake of Ledger’s Oscar win, interest in the film has spiked.
Upon reading this, The Playlist decided to do some research and found out the video was for “King Rat”, a We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank bonus track. They also note that in an interview with VH1 in spring 2007, Isaac Brock said, “Heath Ledger’s been wanting to do a video for one of the songs that didn’t make it on the record, ‘King Rat.’ Terry Gilliam is going to help animate it. Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, my fiancé and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea. He’s got a video production company and was interested in working on something. We were talking back and forth for a while. The idea seemed sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it. And I love me some Terry Gilliam. I hope it works out and I don’t sound like a fucking liar at the end of this.”
The Playlist also reported that Heath was working on a Nick Drake biopic as well, which had included footage shot by Ledger that features the bathtub suicide scene.
Back to Pitchfork, who reports the status of the “King Rat” video is currently unknown. And lastly, Zack Snyder, if you, or anyone else from Watchmen are reading this, please watch Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight repeatedly, then remake the movie.
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