Another Heath Ledger Blog

By Spencer Siegel

They say that an Oscar is to die for. Some folks just take that too literally (see Heath Ledger).

Ok, even I must acknowledge that was a bit trite and disrespectful. But that is how I roll.

Some say that Heath Ledger won an Oscar because of his performance in "The Dark Knight." Others contend that while his role int he film was respectable, it only secured him the Oscar because of his untimely death. Ledger's family accepted the award on his behalf. It was a somber moment of the ceremony that you can view it here if you're the type that enjoys eulogies (or see the embedded video at the bottom).

But wait... there is still that possibility he can star in another film! No, he did not fake his death. No, some super-natural force is not going to resurrect him. No, it is not going to be a collage of various clips he's done in the past. In fact, it is much simpler: he was filming another movie at the time of his death: “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”

Apparently Ledger died in the midst of filming whereas for "The Dark Knight" filming was already completed. This means that they producers did not have all the footage to actually make the movie. Tragic.

So who do you call when you've got a problem? Not the Ghostbusters, but our favorite pirate friend Johnny Depp and two other people you might have heard of: Colin Farrell and Jude Law. They stepped in to rewrite the script and turn Ledger's character into something that requires four actors to play the same character (no clue how this works, but you can read more on it by clicking here).

So what is the lesson of this story? Not really sure if there is a lesson to learn here. But you can walk away knowing that there is a possibility Ledger can win another Oscar; which would just be incredibly weird.