website tracking
Search The Big Picture


« Mickey Rourke Goes 'Inside the Actors Studio' | Main | Disney Buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 Billion »
Monday
31Aug2009

'Doctor Parnassus' To Be Released on December 25th

DateMonday, August 31, 2009 at 11:01AM
It has been an inarguably tough road for Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Like most of his films, even getting the project off the ground took some time, and after Heath Ledger died during production, it was hard to know what the outcome would be. Gilliam's previous movie, The Brothers Grimm was not successful commercially or critically and everyone remembers his aborted Don Quixote project before that.

But the right people rallied around Gilliam and Parnassus, and Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell all filled in for Ledger in the film (and donated their salaries to Ledger's daughter), and the film was completed in time for Cannes this year. Even after that, though, there was some talk that it might not find US distribution.

Sony Classics has stepped in to handle the domestic release, and as part of that process, has released a terrific trailer for Parnassus that shows Gilliam at the peak of his powers. The visuals are inventive, a little mad, and identifiably his own. And now the distributor has announced that it will be in theaters this year, but just barely. Doctor Parnassus will open on December 25th, the last target date for movies that want any Oscar consideration.

It probably won't get a wide release until mid-January at the earliest, but it should at least play Los Angeles (the critical market for Academy Awards rules) and New York at the end of the year. Of course, there's no guarantee that it will come to a city near you, but I have a feeling this will be different enough in early 2010 that it might be able to last a while across the country.

so all's well that end's well: Gilliam's new movie was not only completed in a timely fashion, it has a major distributor throwing it in the awards season.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

Hope it makes it to Vancouver, Canada!

Monday, August 31, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterKrystal

People will be too busy with Avatar, sadly.

But Gilliam was not born to make blockbusters, anyway.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLengthy Johnson

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>