Heath Ledger plays the Joker, whom the actor described as a “psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy”.[9] Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so.[10] When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work in that film’s tone,[11] and Nolan agreed upon his anarchic interpretation.[10] To prepare for the role he lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s posture, voice and psychology.[8] While he initially found it difficult, Ledger was eventually able to generate a voice which did not sound like Jack Nicholson’s take on the character in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film.[12] He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker’s thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance.[9] He was also given Batman: The Killing Joke and Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth to read, which he “really tried to read [...] and put it down”.[11] Ledger also cited inspiration in A Clockwork Orange and Sid Vicious.[13] Ultimately, “there’s nothing that [is] consistent”, as his main objective was to frighten the audience.[13] The challenge of the role put a strain on Ledger’s sleep patterns, finding himself unable to rest for more than a few hours each night.[9]
One person you have to feel sorry for is Terry Gilliam. Ledger was halfway through filming a movie called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Gilliam.
If you ever seen Lost in La Mancha, you’d know that Gilliam has a reputation for disasterous movie productions. La Mancha is about his failed attempt to make an adaptation of Don Quixote. Now one of his lead actors has died midway through another one of his films.
So infamous is Gilliam’s bad luck, that The Onion once wrote this article about him.
LONDON—A backyard barbecue hosted by director Terry Gilliam was postponed again Sunday due to production delays. “I had a special grill flown in from Fiji, but it took three weeks to figure out how to light it,” Gilliam said of the 20-foot, volcano-shaped propane grill he’d deemed integral to the Tiki-themed event. “Then, just when I had the menu hammered out, Johnny [Depp] got sick, and I had to push the date back again. See, the whole thing was for his birthday in June.” In spite of the continued delays, party guest Elvis Mitchell predicted that the event will be “visually stunning” and “fun.”
Perhaps the weight of the world, i.e. global warming and stuff, got to him. Or maybe he couldn’t convert crude ounces to nobler grams and OD’d.
Most likley he was murdered by conservative Southerners who took offense to his portraying cowboys as being gay.
Cmon, one Randy Jones is enough.
RANDY JONES (Village People)
“One of the most beloved entertainers and pop icons from the Disco era, multi-platinum recording artist and American Music Award winner Randy Jones came to embody The Cowboy in Village People in a way that has captured the public imagination for decades."-- NEW YORK POST
In 50 years people will be saying “Remember when that lovely Heath Phoenix died - he was such a sweet young lad”. Followed by “You call that music? That’s just noise son”.
Hugh Halfwit was essentially ripping him for being a coke addicted drug fiend on the radio last night.
This may be true of course but that has yet to come out, just that there were some pills found near the body (50% of America must be on some kind of pills it seems to me) and he had found a gossip column somewhere on-line from last year from an anonymous source saying Ledger was procuring loads of coke while in Canada for a movie.
That’s all you need, then you can get the bigoted callers riled up with a trifecta link of drug addicts, homosexuals (brokeback) and Hollywood.
Hugh Halfwit was essentially ripping him for being a coke addicted drug fiend on the radio last night.
This may be true of course but that has yet to come out, just that there were some pills found near the body (50% of America must be on some kind of pills it seems to me) and he had found a gossip column somewhere on-line from last year from an anonymous source saying Ledger was procuring loads of coke while in Canada for a movie.
That’s all you need, then you can get the bigoted callers riled up with a trifecta link of drug addicts, homosexuals (brokeback) and Hollywood.
Sad story, however it happened.
I’m so glad that the left never resorted to that when Limbaugh admitted prescription drug dependency…
Hugh Halfwit was essentially ripping him for being a coke addicted drug fiend on the radio last night.
This may be true of course but that has yet to come out, just that there were some pills found near the body (50% of America must be on some kind of pills it seems to me) and he had found a gossip column somewhere on-line from last year from an anonymous source saying Ledger was procuring loads of coke while in Canada for a movie.
That’s all you need, then you can get the bigoted callers riled up with a trifecta link of drug addicts, homosexuals (brokeback) and Hollywood.
Sad story, however it happened.
I’m so glad that the left never resorted to that when Limbaugh admitted prescription drug dependency...
yeah
I’m not trying to make it a right and left thing, it’s not nice to make fun of people who are sick reguardless of who you/they are.
EDIT: It’s a bad comparrison anyway, it’s not like Ledger is some kind of spokesman for “The Left”
I haven’t seen that film. It got pretty average/poor reviews if I remember correctly.
Aside from ‘Flight of the Conchords’, I struggle to think of much funny stuff we’ve produced (film, or tv).
I think Aussie puts out a hell of a lot more quality funny stuff (e.g. The Castle).
If we do humour, it’s usually for relief in dark films, which we seem to specialise in.
There is a documentary about NZ Film called ”Cinema of Unease” with Sam Neill, which essentially traces NZ Film history. The title is a good summary.
But then maybe you are talking more generally....
EDIT: I haven’t seen Eagle versus Shark, which I understand is pretty funny
I haven’t seen that film. It got pretty average/poor reviews if I remember correctly.
Aside from ‘Flight of the Conchords’, I struggle to think of much funny stuff we’ve produced (film, or tv).
I think Aussie puts out a hell of a lot more quality funny stuff (e.g. The Castle).
If we do humour, it’s usually for relief in dark films, which we seem to specialise in.
There is a documentary about NZ Film called ”Cinema of Unease” with Sam Neill, which essentially traces NZ Film history. The title is a good summary.
But then maybe you are talking more generally....
EDIT: I haven’t seen Eagle versus Shark, which I understand is pretty funny
Were a lot of things, but we aren’t known for comedy. But that’s starting to change. Flight of the Conchords on HBO is great.
You should read the wiki page. It’s hilarious and scary at the same time. As well as picketing the funeral for Heath, they went to the reopening of the mall in Omaha to “thank God” for the massacre.
Michael Moore organized a humorous counterprotest against the church for his TV Show The Awful Truth. He followed Phelps around the country in “the Sodomobile,” a pink bus filled with homosexuals. They even, at one point, get to meet Fred Phelps and Moore introduces the Sodomobile to him.
