There are any number of tragic aspects to the sudden death of Heath Ledger, the very least of which is the effect his demise might have on films in production. But this is a film blog, after all, and it only took a couple of clicks at the IMDb to determine that at least one movie may be in jeopardy. No, it’s not The Dark Knight; as far as we can tell, Ledger’s much-anticipated turn as the Joker has been in the can for months. In a cruel twist of fate, it’s Terry Gilliam’s latest opus, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which began shooting last month in London. Yes, the same Terry Gilliam who saw his production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote grind to a halt when his star Jean Rochefort fell ill.

According to Variety, Imaginarium is not a sequel to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, but rather “a characteristically convoluted tale of a travelling theater troupe led by the 1,000-year-old Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), whose magical mirror lets his audience escape into a universe of boundless imagination.” In the article, Gilliam acknowledges the troubled history of many of his productions, but insists “my problems have been no greater or less than anyone else's. I just talk too much, or there's always a documentary crew around.” One wonders if he’s changed his mind about that now. It’s not clear how large a role Ledger had in Imaginarium or how much of it had been shot; we do know that Tom Waits had been cast as the Devil, which sounds worth the price of admission in itself.

As noted earlier here on the Screengrab, Gilliam’s Quixote film may yet be revived. We’ll have to wait and see whether his latest production has been dealt a fatal blow.