Ledger's last performance to get CGI'D?
First we heard last week of the classy move that would bring Johnny Depp in to carry on the movie where Ledger left of as a different character (it's a magical universe so there's room to do such appearance transporting things and not lose our interest) but now that's been shot down because Depp needs time to prepare for Mann's PUBLIC ENEMIES. We heard that Ledger had around six weeks of work left on Gilliam's movie, which might only leave Depp 1 or 2 weeks to commit, if that, before he plays John Dillinger. So then we heard that Ledger might transform into Depp but then Depp's character would change into someone else, and so on and so on... with several actors working for next to nothing in respect to Heath. Again, another classy move. The latest development though is not encouraging. Christopher Plummer, the co-star of the movie gives us the latest...
Terrys throwing himself into the job of trying to salvage the picture, said Plummer. trying to work out at this moment how to continue on. Fortunately, because the film deals with magic, there is a way, perhaps, of turning Heath into other people and then, using stills and I think they call it CGI Terry was a very good friend . He very wants to go on with the movie, and I can very much understand why. Because he wants to dedicate it to Heath, of course.I think I speak for everyone when I say CGI is not the way to go. You remember Oliver Reed and his floating head for his unfinished performance in GLADIATOR? Creepy. I don't want that for Ledger. No matter how good the technology is (and it ain't that great IMO) and quite honestly, I don't think Gilliam has the budget to go ahead with that sort of thing anyway. You have to remember that the fantasy flick has only a $30 million budget and it's not a big studio like Universal or Paramount behind this. It's a Samuel Hadida production, who usually work on smaller flicks. The classy move is to get other actors in to work in memory of Ledger. No computer can ever replicate his performance and if anything it would just have audiences looking for when he becomes a CGI image. Way too distracting and it takes away from seeing what Ledger did with his last role. I mean if it was one or two scenes then fair enough but there's six weeks work left on this movie. Way too long to justify CGI. Gilliam's smarter than this and I'm pretty sure there won't be shortage of takers who would pay tribute to the actor that was taken from us way too early. source - slash film