Heath Ledger’s last movie gets US release

American fans of the late Heath Ledger can finally rest easy after Variety, Hollywood's trade newspaper, reported that Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the distribution rights to The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The movie, directed by ex-Python Terry Gilliam, is scheduled for release in the UK on October 16 this year. Until now though, it had not found a US distributor, despite the unique selling point that it was the last movie made by the Australian actor, who died in January 2008 with just one third of the film in the can.

However, some industry observers have raised concerns that Sony Pictures Classics do not have a strong history of wide distribution, tending to bury releases in art house cinemas. Premiered out-of-competition at the Cannes film festival, Dr Parnassus is expected to do well when it is made available on DVD, attracting Heath Ledger's wide fanbase.

Gilliam, who suffered a similar disaster on his still-unfinished film adaptation of Don Quixote when his lead actor Jean Rochefort was taken ill, rescued the production by casting Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to replace Ledger for the scenes he had not completed. The three Hollywood A-listers donated their fees to Ledger’s daughter Matilda.

Gilliam said he based Ledger's character Tony on former British PM Tony Blair, who "would say the most insane things and probably he'd believe them himself".

Initial critical reaction to the film has been mixed. In the UK, the Daily Telegrah complained: "What a potty, overcooked film this is… It's chaos, and not especially organised chaos at that."

The seen-it-all-before US Variety however was more enthusiastic, saying that despite "the fact that Terry Gilliam hadn't directed a good picture in more than a decade", Parnassus is "pretty good", with "visual panache" and "lively action and excellent visual effects". ·