15 Movies You Thought Were Doomed (But Weren't)

4. The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Things don't get much more awful than your lead actor dying mid-production, and that's exactly what happened to Heath Ledger while shooting Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Gilliam initially planned to shelve the project, but due to the movie's fantastical nature, decided that Ledger's character Tony could merely change appearances as he progressed through his journey.

As such, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law quickly signed on to play Tony for various portions of the film, each ultimately giving their wages to Ledger's daughter Matilda, who was left out of the most recent version of Ledger's will.

Between Ledger's death, the death of producer William Vince two days after shooting wrapped and Gilliam almost being killed in a car accident, the production was routinely deemed "cursed" in the press, and few were expecting much more than a messy end product.

As it turned out, though, the movie was broadly acclaimed as another imaginative winner from Gilliam, with most critics expressing surprise with how creatively Ledger's absence was worked into the script. It even doubled its budget at the box office and was nominated for two Oscars (Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design).

Basically, everything went better than expected.