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Found dead in his NY apartment of a possible drug overdose...

From CNN

Wow that's shocking; I was looking forward to him playing the Joker in the next Batman.

^^ I think that movie's all wrapped up, I saw the preview for it already. It looks great. Heath Ledger is hardly recognizable as the Joker.

Sad.

Yeah, "Dark Knight" wrapped. But he was working on another one: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I wonder how this production will move forward.

I think I more meant that it would be sad watching a film I was looking forward too, where one of the leads is now dead.

Rather thanI was worried that I might not get to see the film now. I think I might just be a bit selfish to be thinking like that.

quote:

Originally posted by Dharker:
I think I more meant that it would be sad watching a film I was looking forward too, where one of the leads is now dead.

Rather thanI was worried that I might not get to see the film now. I think I might just be a bit selfish to be thinking like that.

You are not the only one who feel's this way. A witer for Entertainment Weekly expressed the same concern, that his death will hang over the audience's head. I, for one, think that his death will make his performance that much more meaningful.

As for the film itself, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand we have a fantastic adaptation of the great graphic novel series; but on the other hand it seems like these movies are changing the order that was set with the original '89 film.

I love Jack Nicholson, and I love his take on the Joker; and I think Heath Ledger will bring a whole new way of looking at that character. However, 1989's "Batman" was an origin story. In the 1989 film, we saw Jack Napier shoot Bruce Wayne's parents in a dark alley, and then we saw Jack Napier turn into The Joker. "Batman Begins," changed the former; and "Dark Knight" will change the latter.

I guess we can't really look at these new Batman movies as direct sequels, but it's hard to place them into the timeline that was set in 1989. Nevertheless, "Batman Begins" still was a shockingly fantastic movie, and I can only imagine "Knight" to be just as good.

Movie stars have that immortality that film gives. Marilyn will always be beautiful and young and funny, every time you watch one of her films. Or watching stars who later aged ....

I imagine in a weird way this upcoming film gives Heath Ledger a sort of "afterlife". The characters a good actor crafts inhabit their own virtual space, they don't exist, they're the invention of the writer, director and actor.

I think Ledger really had craft and talent and a psychological sensitivity for some of his roles, more than your average commercial actor in Hollywood. I'm really glad we'll get to see his version of the Joker for that reason. A more disturbed version than Jack Nicholson's. People's contributions continue after they pass. I don't think of it as just entertainment and escapism.

I'm rambling, but I'm very glad they wrapped the Batman film and that we get to see it with Ledger in it. And I'm sad for the loss of such a bright talent. His career was in its early stage, really.