Gilliam Anthems

The news that Quincy Jones is planning to remake "We Are The World" brings to mind the satire of charity singles that Terry Gilliam penned for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Heath Ledger's character is a charity scam artist, and "We Are The Children of the World" is first heard as the ringtone on his Blackberry. (The ringtone is also the last thing heard at the end of the credits)

The other song Gilliam wrote for the movie is a very Pythonesque police recruitment anthem called "We Love Violence".

Monty Python Reunion

The news of a Monty Python reunion in October came just a day after I was revisiting their "Novel Writing" sketch, wherein they imagine Thomas Hardy writing The Return of the Native in front of a crowd of spectators.

Monty Python have done reunions before. At the one in the clip below, Graham Chapman manages to attend via his remains, which are used to great effect:



That's Terry Gilliam who sets off the ruckus, which reminds me that the trailer for his new film with Heath Ledger looks pretty killer:

RIP, Heath

How tremendously sad to hear of Heath Ledger's passing. He came an awfully long way as an actor in just a handful of films, and his partnership with Terry Gilliam was deeply promising. Heath had just turned in a wondrously silly performance in The Brother Grimm, and filming was well under way for The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus.

Heath's death continues the tremendous run of bad karma that has dogged Gilliam's productions, and the only images to emerge from the filming of Parnassus are eery shots of the actor hanging from a noose.

Here's hoping that enough of Heath's final performance was filmed to allow for one last chance to see this captivating actor onscreen.

Central Services

Since Memorial Day, when we cited Michael Kamen's Brazil score as an all-time classic, the thing has been popping up everywhere. The idea to use Ary Barroso's song was Gilliam's; so, perhaps he should get co-credit for its present popularity.

In addition to the song appearing in commercials for credit cards, allergy medications and the like, the actual cue from the establishing shot of Sam Lowry's office at Central Services has turned up in the trailers for Sicko, The Bee Movie, and Wall-E.