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Johnny Depp makes his directorial return with Modi, a film exploring three days in the storied life of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani in 1920s Paris. Stepping behind the camera for the first time in over twenty years, Depp brings his passion for free spirits to the big screen in telling Modigliani’s story. Riccardo Scamarcio takes on the titular role of the brilliant yet misunderstood artist, a man dying all too young from tuberculosis amid the chaos of war-torn Europe. Alongside a fantastic ensemble that includes Antonia Desplat as Modigliani’s lover Beatrice Hastings and Al Pacino in a memorable cameo, Scamarcio immerses us in Modigliani’s bohemian world.

The film finds Modigliani struggling for recognition as World War I rages. Living hand in mouth as a portraitist in Paris’ cafes, his rebellious spirit lands him in trouble with the elites. We experience the highs and lows of his artistic drive,...

Celebrated in time for his distinctively lanky, almond-eyed interpretations of the human form, the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani died in 1920 at the age of just 35, tubercular and destitute and celebrated for very little indeed. At 61, Johnny Depp has both handily outlived Modigliani and outranked him in terms of antemortem celebrity. Yet there’s more than a twinge of empathy for that most irresistible of archetypes — the great, iconoclastic artist under-appreciated in his own time — running through “Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” an ostensibly free-spirited Modigliani biopic that marks the embattled star’s first directorial outing in nearly 30 years. Broad in tone and narrow in scope, the film is in thrall to the idea of creating art outside mainstream financial and aesthetic models, though its structure and outlook are not unfamiliar.

Often jovial despite its tragic true-life trappings, and considerably more accessible than its unwieldy full title suggests,...

Exclusive: Johnny Depp’s London-based film company In.2 is adding a new string to its bow with the release this Friday of French historical drama Jeanne du Barry.

Starring Depp as Louis Xv opposite French actress and director Maïwenn in the titular role, the picture opened the Cannes Film Festival last year.

As per Cannes’ stipulation for opening films, it released theatrically in France the same day, enjoying a successful run for distributor Le Pacte with the highest French gross for a Cannes opener since The Great Gatsby in 2013.

In.2 will release the movie on 70 screens on April 19 across the UK in a campaign spearheaded by Head of Production Stephen Malit.

The UK release will be followed by the U.S. launch by Vertical Entertainment on May 2, which has confirmed 600 theatres so far.

Deadline caught up with Malit as well as In.2 CEO Stephen Deuters and Development Coordinator Vivi Stone...

Italian actress Luisa Ranieri has joined the cast of Johnny Depp’s upcoming Amadeo Modigliani bio-pic Modi as filming gets underway in Hungary.

Ranieri’s arrival on the picture was announced by Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino at Rome-based Ible group which has joined Depp’s in.2 Film and Barry Navidi Productions on the film.

Modi is Depp’s second feature in the director’s chair after his 1997 feature The Brave.

Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio plays the titular painter and sculptor, with previously announced cast members including Al Pacino, in the role of art collector Maurice Gangnat.

Ranieri will play Rosalie Tobia, the owner of a Paris cafe frequented by impoverished artists, who took Modigliani under her wing when he was down and out.

“Luisa Ranieri, is among one of Italy’s most talented actresses, with the portential for international success,” Iervolino said in a statement released to Italian news agency Ansa on Tuesday.

Before returning to the silver screen for Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, Johnny Depp is ready to announce his first directorial effort in 25 years for Modi, a biopic focusing on the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Inspired by a play by Dennis McIntyre and adapted for Hollywood by Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski, Modi tells the story of the famous painter and sculptor during his time in Paris in 1916.

Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick: Chapter 2), Pierre Niney (Yves Saint Laurent), and Al Pacino lead the cast, with filming going down in Budapest this fall. The Veterans will bring the project to Cannes for a potential sale.

According to Deadline, Modi chronicles a harrowing 48 hours of Amedeo Modigliani’s life, depicting when he ran from police through the streets and watering holes of war-torn Paris. Bohemians think nothing of Modigliani ending his career prematurely, including French artist Maurice Utrillo, the Belarusian-born Chaim Soutine, and his English muse and lover,...

Exclusive: On the eve of his acting return at the Cannes Film Festival, Johnny Depp has set a buzzy first round of cast for Modi, his first directorial effort in 25 years.

The biopic of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani will be led by Italian star Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick Chapter 2), Cesar Award winner Pierre Niney (Yves Saint Laurent) and screen icon Al Pacino (The Godfather).

Filming is due to get underway in Budapest this fall and the hot package is being sold at the Cannes market by The Veterans. Additional casting is underway.

Based on a play by Dennis McIntyre and adapted for the screen by Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski, the film will tell the story of the famous painter and sculptor Modigliani during his time in Paris in 1916.

The movie will chronicle the life of the Italian artist across a turbulent and eventful 48 hours which sees him on the...

Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Adam Driver, José Luis Ferrer, Ismael Fritschi, Juan López-Tagle, William Miller, Will Keen, Jason Watkins, Paloma Bloyd, Olga Kurylenko, Joana Ribeiro | Written by Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni | Directed by Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam’s’ long-delayed rendition of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has taken over twenty-eight years to come to fruition, but alas, after multiple delays, a stroke and, a lawsuit against a release, Gilliam’s film has finally been released for all to see, albeit in an incredibly diluted and sadly quiet fashion. For a film that has almost killed three cast members involved in a life span of thirty years any film of such high esteem and high calibre ought to be worth viewing alone for the pain and pressure that went into realising such a project, but unfortunately, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is all seemingly inconsequential.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote...

Stars: Jonathan Pryce, Adam Driver, José Luis Ferrer, Ismael Fritschi, Juan López-Tagle, William Miller, Will Keen, Jason Watkins, Paloma Bloyd, Olga Kurylenko, Joana Ribeiro | Written by Terry Gilliam, Tony Grisoni | Directed by Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam’s’ long-delayed rendition of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has taken over twenty-eight years to come to fruition, but alas, after multiple delays, a stroke and, a lawsuit against a release, Gilliam’s film has finally been released for all to see, albeit in an incredibly diluted and sadly quiet fashion. For a film that has almost killed three cast members involved in a life span of thirty years any film of such high esteem and high calibre ought to be worth viewing alone for the pain and pressure that went into realising such a project, but unfortunately, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is all seemingly inconsequential.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote...

Terry Gilliam’s near-mythical movie finally arrives on the screen. Was it worth the wait?

We’ve all experienced that sensation of something sounding or looking good in our heads -- a note we wanted to write to someone, a story we wanted to pen, perhaps even a film we wanted to make -- and then the disappointment of it actually coming to existence on the page or screen and the thing not being exactly how we envisioned it in the seclusion of our minds.

In a strange way, Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote -- a film that the maverick director of Brazil and 12 Monkeys has been attempting to make for three decades -- engenders the same sensation in the viewer. After all these years, and with the movie’s almost legendary status as the one that kept getting away, one can’t help but wonder if all the time,...

Terry Gilliam wonders if The Man Who Killed Don Quixote can live up to its larger than life production trouble. The trouble is due to the insecurities Quixote faced being an independent production, but that independence is also how Gilliam’s kept the project alive long after a studio would have scrapped it.

The movie’s storied production history is well-documented, including Amazon’s last-minute decision to pull out of the project when producer Paulo Branco claimed rights to the film, which nearly derailed their 2018 premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

In our conversation with Gilliam we discuss how Jonathan Pryce’s Don Quixote built his own ramshackle armor, how directing is like being “an ignorant peasant who knows no better,” and his feelings about Fathom Event’s one-night-only screening strategy.

The Film Stage: I found Quixote’s costume so beautiful. It looks like a leftover costume from the movie within a movie,...

Terry Gilliam has tried to make his film “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” for over two decades and barring some final unforeseen tragedy, his film will open in theaters on April 10 for one night only as part of a release with Screen Media and Fathom Events.

It’s the classic production from hell, complete with on-set injuries, lost funding, natural disasters and outsized ambitions worthy of the hero of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel. Even after it wrapped, a lawsuit threatened to derail the film from screening at Cannes, and Amazon Studios pulled out of a deal to distribute the film in the U.S.

So the irony isn’t lost on anyone that Gilliam’s quest to make a movie about Don Quixote has been nothing if not quixotic. Here’s a not-so-brief timeline of every step on the road to Gilliam getting his film made.

Also Read:...

You’d be forgiving for thinking I’m pulling your leg and telling a belated April Fool’s Day joke when I talk about having seen The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. The long time passion project of Terry Gilliam has seemed so cursed and impossible to get off the ground, it even inspired a well received documentary in Lost in La Mancha. Having started work on this outing back in the late 1980’s, it’s been a full lifetime bringing The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to life. This week, it’s finally going to be available for public consumption, in part through Fathom Events. Those of you who have long been curious about it can rest easy…it’s good! The film is an adventure with a mix of comedy and drama elements thrown in, as only Gilliam can put forth. Toby (Adam Driver) is a deeply cynical but highly regarded director.

Since 1989, Terry Gilliam has been attempting (and re-attempting) to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, the trials and tribulations of which got its own documentary. He finally completed the film with Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce leading the story of an advertising director who gets entangled in a surreal Spanish adventure. Following a Cannes premiere, it’ll now arrive in theaters this April.

Not going the traditional theatrical route, Screen Media Films has teamed with Fathom Events for a one-night-only event on April 10, playing in over 700 theaters across the U.S. and Canada. They’ve also debuted a new trailer, which shows more of this imaginative journey, shot by Gilliam’s frequent cinematographer Nicola Pecorini. Reactions at Cannes weren’t as enthusiastic as one might expect from such a long-burning passion project, but we’re eager to check it out nonetheless.

Also starring Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skarsgard, and Joana Ribeiro,...

“The Dark Tower” is finally arriving in theaters after decades in development. Reports surfaced earlier this week that test screenings for the Stephen King adaptation were so awful that Sony Pictures considered replacing director Nikolaj Arcel and bringing in someone new to oversee post-production and turn the film around.

Read More‘The Dark Tower’ Tested So Poorly That Sony Considered Replacing Director

Unfortunately, news like this is becoming all too familiar in the age of studio-driven tentpoles. More and more, executives have the final call, not directors, and it’s leading to one production nightmare after another. As the studios become the driving forces behind blockbusters, directors’ voices continue to be stifled. No wonder the likes of Darren Aronofsky, Terry Gilliam, and Lynne Ramsay have all struggled in the studio system. Below is a rundown of the 9 most troubled film productions of the 21st century (so far).

“The Bourne Identity” (2002)

Nobody expected “The Bourne Identity” to become a worldwide hit and a franchise-starting success story, especially not director Doug Liman and screenwriter Tony Gilroy. The production was living hell from day one as Universal and Liman became mortal enemies. The studio hated Liman’s slow pacing for the film and his execution of small-scale, intimate action scenes (which led to certain set pieces being entirely re-shot so they could be more fast-paced). Liman was forced into filming re-shoots, which raised the budget by $8 million to the $60 million mark. Gilroy was delivering script re-writes throughout the entirety of filming as Universal kept scrapping scenes. Other points of contention included the studio forcing Liman to set some of the film in Paris in order to keep the budget down and Liman’s demand for using a French-speaking crew.

“The Brothers Grimm” (2005)

Terry Gilliam needed a hit after the box office failure of his passion project “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” and that pressure kept him away from the big screen for seven years. He finally decided to return with “The Brothers Grimm,” a fairy tale blockbuster from MGM and Dimension. Problems started when MGM dropped out after struggling to raise the necessary budget. The movie went into production with an $80 million price tag, but Gilliam always knew a movie of this scale required a budget upwards of $120 million. He ended up in a tense relationship with the Weinstein brothers, who took control of the film away from Gilliam and fired his cinematographer and regular collaborator Nicola Pecorini after six weeks. Things got so bad that filming was shut down for two weeks. Gilliam ended up finishing the project and has admitted the final version is the result of two competing visions and neither winning.

“Fantastic Four” (2015)

“Fantastic Four” was released in theaters on August 7, but it was not the version director Josh Trank had cut, nor was it the one actors Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Toby Kebbell, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell signed up to make. Trank had originally pitched his movie as a superhero spin on a David Cronenberg body horror film, but this darker version was not what 20th Century Fox ended up wanting. The studio believed the movie hewed too close to Trank’s own “Chronicle” than a superhero tentpole.

Producers Hutch Parker and Simon Kinberg rewrote Trank’s original script and gave the film a different ending during filming. Fox still didn’t like Trank’s theatrical cut, so they began making changes to certain scenes and omitting entire set pieces without Trank’s knowledge. The director bashed the film on Twitter when it was released, claiming it was entirely different than the version he originally cut. Only later was it revealed that the poor relationship between the studio and the director led the latter to completely shut down on set. Trank reportedly trashed some of the sets and appeared intoxicated during filming. The film never recovered and was a box office flop.

“The Fountain” (2006)

It was only inevitable that a movie as ambitiously conceived as Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” was going to have production troubles. The director originally planned to kick off filming in summer 2002 with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but Warner Bros. got nervous over the budget and threatened to drop out if a co-financier wasn’t found. Aronofsky brought in Regency Enterprises and a start date was set for October 2002 with a $70 million budget. It would have been smooth sailing, but Pitt wanted script revisions and left the movie just seven weeks before production was set to begin. Warner Bros. dropped the film and expensive sets and props had to be auctioned off. Aronofsky remained committed to the film and rewrote it from the ground up in order for it to be made on the cheap. His revision did the trick. Warner Bros. returned and signed on to make the movie for $35 million.

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‘The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty’ To Close Camerimage Fest Camerimage, the international film festival of the art of cinematography, said today that Ben Stiller’s new comedy-drama The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty will close the 21st edition of the festival, which runs November 16-23 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Stiller also stars in the film alongside Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn and Adam Scott. Also, director Terry Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini will present their sci-fi drama The Zero Theorem as the second opening film (following Saving Mr. Banks), which will be part of the festival’s Opening Gala at the Opera Nova. Gilliam received the fest’s Camerimage Special Award to the Director with Unique Visual Sensitivity in 2009, when he and Pecorini presented their film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Nominations For 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Announced Nominations for the seventh annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards were unveiled today.

Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, announced today that Ben Stiller.s new comedy drama The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has been selected to close the 21st edition of the Festival, which takes place November 16th . 23rd. ComingSoon.net will be on hand for the the duration of the festival. Additionally, Academy Award nominee Terry Gilliam ( Monty Python and the Holy Grail , Brazil ) and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini ( Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus ) will present their sci-fi drama The Zero Theorem as the second opening film (following the previously announced Saving Mr. Banks ), which will be part of the Festival.s Opening Gala on Saturday, November 16th at the Opera Nova. The Secret Life...

Terry Gilliam to present The Zero Theorem as the festival’s second opening night film.

Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), is to close with Ben Stiller’s new comedy drama The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

It has also been announced today that director Terry Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini will present their sci-fi drama The Zero Theorem as the second opening film (following Saving Mr. Banks), which will be part of the opening gala of the festival’s 21st edition on Nov 16th at the Opera Nova.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty isdirected by Stiller with cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh (Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Piano, Analyze This). Stiller also stars in the film alongside Bridesmaids actress Kristen Wiig,Sean Penn and Adam Scott.

The film follows a day-dreamer who escapes his unxceptional life by disappearing into a world of fantasies filled with heroism, romance and action...

Our journey through the films of Terry Gilliam continues with the director’s 1998 adaptation of Hunter S Thompson’s Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas…

Compared with other Terry Gilliam films, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas was made under no illusions that it would be a mainstream movie. As an adaptation of Hunter S Thompson's semi-autobiographical 1971-set novel, documenting both 60s counterculture ideals and the American dream in prose both woozy and impassioned, how could it be? This backdrop is set against the foreground of Raoul Duke and Dr Gonzo's voracious ingestion of uppers, downers, screamers and laughers.

This book is the ramblings of a drug-addled loon on a bender, which touches on the declining condition of a country, a movement and a way of life. It is the only one of Thompson's oeuvre to be shelved in the fiction section. According to Johnny Depp, who has read the...

Every one knows that .Ra.One. is Shah Rukh Khan.s most ambitious sci-fi superhero film that is coming out on Diwali Wednesday. Here are some more tidbits about the much awaited film:* Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in prominent roles, has been made on a Rs.150 budget crore and has already created a lot of buzz.* The film is releasing in more than 3,000 screens in the domestic market in 2D and around 500 screens in 3D. The film has been dubbed in Tamil and Telugu and it will also make inroads in South Korea and Hongkong, where Bollywood movies are not so popular.* The idea of the film originated when Anubhav was watching a commercial about six years ago which showed two children controlling a human with a remote.* Anubhav and Shah Rukh watched as many as 200 superhero films in multiple...

Terry Gilliam may not be making that second take on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after all, but don't think he isn't busy. He's already done a webcast with the Arcade Fire this year, and made that strange Nascar-themed short film, The Legend of Hallowdega. Now he's got another short planned that will go before cameras early in 2011. Details on The Wholly Family, after the break. The short film, which should run about fifteen minutes, is based on a script by Mr. Gilliam that he wrote as an 'exercise'. [via Bleeding Cool [1]] He's currently looking for American actors to play a father, mother and young son, and " a series of Italian supporting players with mime, ballet and circus skills." Gilliam by way of Fellini? Oh, yes. Plus, his regular collaborators, cinematographer Nicola Pecorini and costume designer Gabriella Pescucci, will work on the film. Let's hope it is a lot better than Hallowdega...

It happened in 2007 when Golmaal series director Rohit Shetty was blown away by the sets made for the Tamil blockbuster Sivaji and resurrected a similar set for his own 2008 blockbuster hit, Golmaal Returns. Now in 2010, superstar of the South Rajnikanth’s strikes again with his Robot adding pressure on the Bollywood Ka Baadshah aka Shah Rukh Khan to step up the fireworks on his sci-fi superhero flick, Ra.One.

Fireworks, you may ask? Well, sources told DNA India “It is a difficult film to tackle as it has sci-fi, state of the art visual effects and the movie required people with experience to tackle the genre” when talking about the two Hollywood hotshots in the crew, Nicola Pecorini and Jeffrey Kleiser, who are in charge of cinematography and special effects respectively. Another source commented on how Robot’s bumper weekend opening, saying “Shah Rukh feels Robot worked so well because...

Chicago – I know what you’re thinking: What do “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Mystic River” have in common? Nothing at all other than a Blu-ray release date of February 2nd, 2010. Oh, and they’re two films you should probably own if you have a Blu-ray player.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Johnny Depp and Terry Gilliam telling the story of Hunter S. Thompson’s drug-addled lunacy seemed like a match made in movie heaven when production of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” was first announced. Who better to grasp the stream-of-consciousness insanity of Thompson’s writing than a Monty Python member and who better to embody Thompson’s larger-than-life personality than one of the most fearless actors of his generation?

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was released on Blu-ray on February 2nd, 2010.

Photo credit: Universal Pictures Home Video

Perhaps it was those sky high expectations that led to...

By Harvey Karten - Dr. Parnassus is not the only one who ever sold his soul to the devil. That negotiation has been a popular one all over the world from the time that Satan approached Eve down to the present day. Satan has no power over human beings unless we do evil: Victims have included Faust, who sold out for youth and for the hand of Marguerite and who is either condemned or saved depending the production, and Joe Hardy of .Damn Yankees,. who also wanted youth but only to return to his days as a baseball slugger to help the Washington Senators. Director and co-writer Terry Gilliam has his title character, Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), sell his soul in return for immortality. But the devil would get his due: he would claim the doctor.s daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole) on her sixteenth birthday.

Sony Pictures Classics

Grade: C...

Director of the actor's final film, 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,' remembers the actor's talent.

By Eric Ditzian, with reporting by Kurt Loder

Terry Gilliam

Photo: MTV News

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" will forever be known as Heath Ledger's final film. In January of 2008, with less than half of the shoot complete, the 28-year-old actor died in his New York apartment. Refusing to recast Ledger's part, director Terry Gilliam enlisted the help of three A-list actors: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. Together they stepped into the role of Tony, a mysterious man who joins a fantastical theater troupe led by the immortal Parnassus and his mirror, which allows audience members to travel into a psychedelic realm of their own thoughts.

The film opens on Christmas Day. In a wide-ranging interview with our own Kurt Loder, Gilliam spoke about his earliest memories of Ledger, the...

A Vanity Fair article decided to take a closer look at Heath Ledger, including the reason for his decision to play The Joker in last year's "The Dark Knight." According to Ledger's agent Steven Alexander and cinematographer/friend Nicola Pecorini, the actor had a pay-or-play deal on "Knight," which means that he would be compensated no matter how terrible he ends up being. This gave Ledger the freedom to do what he wanted with The Joker. But the real decision to take the role was because of the film's unusually long shoot, which would give Ledger an excuse to turn down other offers. And since he was guaranteed to collect a paycheck, Ledger was hoping that his performance would be so "far-out" that he would end up being fired and become the beneficiary of a lengthy, paid vacation. His agent added that while Ledger wanted to get paid, he didn't...

So what was it about Heath Ledger's Joker that made it so memorable, so feverishly engrossing in its complete abandon? Was it his deep understanding of the character? His anarchic approach? Could it be that it was because he was secretly hoping to get fired from the movie, so he let it all hang out and it ended up working flawlessly for the psychotic supervillain?

According to a new article on the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, Ledger didn't really want to be in a big blockbuster movie like The Dark Knight and only took the job to get away from other big offers.

Be warned that the piece is quite gossipy and focuses on Ledger's personal demons and his failed relationship, which is rather off-putting for me, personally. It takes snipes at Michelle Williams, and I'm disappointed to see Terry Gilliam contributing to this speculative "what made Ledger snap" stuff.

While the world mourns the loss of Michael Jackson, Vanity Fair has cooked up a somewhat controversial (and fairly random) look back at Heath Ledger's final days, with quotes from his agent, his vocal coach, director Terry Gilliam and Doctor Parnassus cinematographer Nicola Pecorini. The article, published in part on Vanity Fair's website, is broken into different paragraphs with titles like "How chronic insomnia may have led to his death" and "How his relationship failed." Did the world -- not to mention Ledger's fans, friends and family -- really need all these old wounds dug up and scraped for a little extra attention? Probably not. Of all the quotes, the most fascinating seem to be the ones which talk about The Dark Knight, and how Ledger's pay-or-play deal allowed him to do whatever he wanted with the role of Joker seeing as he was to still receive a paycheck...

This next story seems intentionally designed to stir the proverbial pot, regardless of whether or not there is any truth to it...something which may never be sorted out, frankly. A new Vanity Fair article is suggesting that Heath Ledger may not have wanted to play the role of The Joker in The Dark Knight.

According to the story, Ledger's indelible performance as the Clown Prince of Crime may actually have been evidence of his desire to exit the film altogether.

Sound preposterous...or probable? Read on...

According to Ledger's agent Steven Alexander and cinematographer/friend Nicola Pecorini, the actor had a pay-or-play deal on The Dark Knight, which meant that the young actor had nearly unlimited freedom to define the role, and that he may have pushed that freedom to its limits in an effort to be dismissed from the project, as he would receive compensation either way.

The...

In the days leading up to his death, Heath Ledger battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia and exhaustion, according to several members of Ledger's inner circle - who paint a portrait of a tortured man who struggled with personal strife and professional indecision, reports the August Vanity Fair, on sale nationally July 7. Apparently, one of the biggest struggles in Ledger's life was his deteriorating relationship with partner Michelle Williams. "Heath was always blaming himself [about the relationship], asking 'what did I do wrong?'" says Ledger's friend and mentor, director Terry Gilliam. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them,...

Vanity Fair has a feature on Heath Ledger's last days working on "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." To read the whole article you'll have to buy the August issue of the magazine, as a short summary is available online. A press release summarizing its contents is below: New York, N.Y.--Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind writes about the remarkable talent and untimely death of actor Heath Ledger, reporting on the actor's final movie role, his ambivalence about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened at the end of his life as he was battling chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion. Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who worked with Ledger on his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and compares Ledger to "a young Richard Burton," tells Biskind that once Ledger's drug use became an issue--"He used to smoke marijuana...

The August issue of Vanity Fair went to press before Michael Jackson died -- otherwise the magazine might not have included an article about Heath Ledger, defending Ledger's drug abuse. Peter Biskind reports that Ledger, who perished in January 2008 of an overdose of prescription drugs, suffered from insomnia. Vocal coach Peter Grennell said Ledger would stay awake night after night rearranging the furniture wherever he was staying. Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini tells Biskind that Ledger only took the job of...

Why was Heath Ledger so ambivalent about his own stardom, and what happened at the end of his life? Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind sheds new light on these difficult-to-answer questions as he writes about the actor’s remarkable talent and untimely death in the August cover story, “The Last of Heath.” In his article, Biskind explores Ledger’s final movie role, his uncertainty about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened in the days and weeks leading up to his death as he battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion. Here are some of the revelations contained in Biskind’s story. Click here to see exclusive photos of Heath Ledger by Bruce Weber! Vote for Heath Ledger's best performance in our poll! How he cleaned up his act • Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who worked with Ledger on his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, says...

It's hard to believe almost a year has gone by since Heath Ledger's tragic passing, but next Thursday will be the one-year anniversary of his death. He's already been honored with a few posthumous awards, including a Golden Globe, and with Oscar nominations less than a week away, the buzz around Heath's performance in The Dark Knight is as loud as ever. To continue honoring and celebrating his memory, Entertainment Weekly made Heath its cover story with quotes and highlights about his life from the people that worked closely with the actor and grew to know and love him over the years. Here are a few highlights from the touching article: Gil Junger, director, 10 Things I Hate About You: "Heath came in to read, and he exuded a sexuality so uncommon for a man of that age. As soon as he left, I stood up and said, 'Ladies, I...

Twelve Monkeys director Terry Gilliam is furious with movie moguls Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein for scrapping his ideas and undermining his authority during filming of his new Matt Damon movie The Brothers Grimm. The powerful pair first ditched Gilliam's plans to cast Samantha Morton in the lead role in favor of lesser known actress Lena Headey, and then further enraged the former Monty Python star by sacking his cinematographer Nicola Pecorini for working too slowly. Tensions escalated to the extent that Gilliam refused to shoot for two weeks as he was so staggered by what he viewed as the Weinsteins' constant interference. He fumes, "I'm used to riding roughshod over executives, but the Weinsteins rode roughshod over me." But Bob Weinstein insists, "Any film involves the making of 10,000 decisions. If you only concentrate on the few we had issues with, you ignore the 9,997 we left to totally to Terry."...

"Harrison's Flowers", a gripping account of one woman's desperate yet determined search for her photojournalist husband believed by all his colleagues to have died in the Croatian civil war, is made all the more compelling by the recent kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. While the fictional story is much different than the tragically real one, Pearl's death underscores the danger and horrors war journalists must endure. This film by French filmmaker Elie Chouraqui painstakingly recreates the hell that was Croatia, a grotesque, almost surreal killing field where lives are taken at whim and a journalist is treated with disdain.

Made more than two years ago and winding up its festival tour here in Santa Barbara, the film, to be released this month by Universal Focus, hits theaters at a propitious moment. Propelled by a thoroughly convincing performance by Andie MacDowell, in a role that finds her character performing highly unlikely deeds, "Harrison's Flowers" should do well with adult viewers in and possibly beyond art house venues.

MacDowell and David Strathairn play married journalists, both of whom work at Newsweek in New York. With two young children needing his attention, Strathairn's prize-winning photojournalist asks his boss (Alun Armstrong) to retire him from war coverage. However, one last assignment proves, fatefully, to be just that. Off to Croatia in 1991, before the world has ever heard of "ethnic cleansing," he disappears in a building that collapses and is presumed dead.

Because there is no body, MacDowell insists her husband is not dead. Despite the fact her children have lost their dad and, by her actions, may lose their mother as well, MacDowell sets off for Yugoslavia. The reason: She thinks she has seen her husband in news footage she has tape-recorded from TV.

She sneaks across the border from Austria. On her first day, a companion gets brutally slain and she would have been raped but combat prevents a soldier from finishing his attack. Rather fortuitously -- you don't want to examine this coincidence too closely -- she is discovered by a group of fellow journalists. Half dead, she nevertheless convinces two colleagues of her husband, a hot-headed American (Adrien Brody) and an Irish veteran (Brendan Gleeson), to help her through a terrifying human hell to a hospital where she believes she will find her husband.

Events move swiftly along with all the characters in constant jeopardy. As with such current war films as "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down", Chouraqui achieves a documentarylike reality in his combat scenes, only in this instance, a militia is at war with its own population.

The script by Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen and Michael Katims never fully motivates the two men's decision to help the ruthlessly single-minded MacDowell. Indeed, Brody didn't even get along with her husband. He does mutter something about always wanting to be a Boy Scout. And Gleeson simply declares he doesn't want his friendly rival to get a shot that he doesn't have.

The movie undergoes a curious shift in point of view or, to be accurate, in narrative strategy about three-quarters of the way through when a New York colleague of her husband's (Elias Koteas) mysteriously materializes in the war zone. At this point, his voice-over narration begins to fill in the gaps. But this is a voice you haven't heard before, and it strikes an odd note, smacking of a last-minute decision made in postproduction.

Top marks to go cinematographer Nicola Pecorini and production designer Giantito Burchiellaro for evoking the dark, smoky war zone, extending through villages and a nightmarish countryside, all within a 90-mile radius of Prague. Even the Newsweek magazine newsroom and the family's New Jersey home were created in the Czech Republic.

HARRISON'S FLOWERS

Universal Focus

7 Films Cinema/StudioCanal/France 2 Cinema

with the participation of Canal Plus

Producer/director: Elie Chouraqui

Writers: Elie Chouraqui, Didier Le Pecheur, Isabel Ellsen, Michael Katims

Director of photography: Nicola Pecorini

Production designer: Giantito Burchiellaro

Music: Cliff Eidelman

Editor: Jacques Witta

Color/stereo

Cast:

Sarah Lloyd: Andie MacDowell

Yeager: Elias Koteas

Stevenson: Brendan Gleeson

Kyle: Adrien Brody

Harrison Lloyd: David Strathairn

Samuel Brubeck: Alun Armstrong

Running time -- 122 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

Think of "Rules of Engagement" as the Marine Corps answer to "A Few Good Men". This military courtroom drama directed by William Friedkin sticks up loudly for the pride and professionalism of the Marines; the real enemies these movie Marines face are not so much foreign troublemakers -- they handle those with ruthless efficiency -- but a gutless diplomat and back-stabbing government official. Whatever its politics, though, "Rules of Engagement" feels like a remake. All too reminiscent of any number of court-martial melodramas, this Paramount film may attract a few males over 25 but contains nothing for younger or female audiences.

That said, this is a spit-and-polish production with solid if unremarkable performances by Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson and early exciting footage, shot in Morocco, of a U.S. embassy under siege.

Jackson is a Marine colonel who commands a rescue mission into Yemen when violent protesters surround the embassy. He plucks the ambassador (Ben Kingsley) and his wife (Anne Archer) from danger but leaves behind a body count of three Marines plus 83 Yemeni citizens. He becomes a scapegoat in an ensuing diplomatic crisis and is court-martialed for murder.

The lawyer Jackson chooses to defend him is Jones, his longtime friend and a fellow combat veteran. Jones is also a third-rate attorney and an alcoholic with a busted marriage and a general for a father -- you know the drill, a guy in dire need of redemption.

The prosecutor is a straight-arrow Marine whose only combat duty came from a feisty office stapler. He is played by Guy Pearce, who in trying to lose his Aussie accent winds up sounding almost Prussian. Or maybe that's what he was going for.

Stephen Gaghan's screenplay, based on a story by former Marine and high-level government official James Webb, makes the damaging decision to reveal Jackson's innocence before the trail gets under way. After you watch the villainous national security adviser (Bruce Greenwood) destroy a tape vindicating Jackson's decision to fire back at armed protesters, even as he instructs Kingsley's scared-rabbit diplomat to lie on the stand, the film fails to hold any suspense.

Instead, the viewer experiences mere frustration at the highly improbable cover-up of terrorism by an American official, the motive for which is never really clear.

At least Jackson and Jones put enough energy into the static courtroom scenes to give them more charge than they deserve. The rest of the acting suffers from over obviousness, from a need to spell things out with black-and-white characterizations.

The cinematography, a shared credit for William Fraker and Nicola Pecorini, is top-notch, giving real urgency in the embassy sequence and a dark, brooding quality to the latter half of the picture. Mark Isham's dynamic music is also a big plus.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures in association with Seven Arts Pictures

presents a Richard D. Zanuck/Scott Rudin production

Producers:Richard D. Zanuck, Scott Rudin

Director:William Friedkin

Writer:Stephen Gaghan

Story by:James Webb

Executive producers:Adam Schroeder, James Webb

Director of photography:William Fraker, Nicola Pecorini

Production designer:Robert Laing

Music:Mark Isham

Co-producer:Arne Schmidt

Costume designer:Gloria Gresham

Editor:Augie Hess

Color/stereo

Cast:

Col. Hayes Hodges:Tommy Lee Jones

Col. Terry Childers:Samuel L. Jackson

Maj. Mark Biggs:Guy Pearce

Gen. H. Lawrence Hodges:Philip Baker Hall

William Sokal:Bruce Greenwood

Capt. Lee:Blair Underwood

Mrs. Mourain:Anne Archer

Ambassador Mourain:Ben Kingsley

Running time -- 128 minutes

MPAA rating: R...