http://slyoyster.com

I’m worried that with The Dark Knight having come and gone so long ago that Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker will get overlooked come awards season.  And though at the time I thought Aaron Eckhart’s performance was the better of the two, I can’t shake Ledger’s turn as the maniacal Joker some six months later.

Maybe part of that is tied into his early death, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else turning in a better performance acting wise this year.  Well, okay, that’s a stretch and things like acting performances are always subjective but still it was a captivating performance.

Warner Bros. has begun their publicity push with advertisements in Variety for Heath Ledger as Best Supporting Actor.  Academy Award ballots are mailed on December 26th, polls close on January 12th, and the nominations are announced on January 22nd.

According to Slashfilm, his competition in the category includes: Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, John Malkovich in Changeling, Ralph Fiennes in Duchess, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading and Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder.

Strange that three of those performances are strictly comedic and Ledger’s comes from a “comic book” movie.  Two genres the academy has consistantly looked down their noses at.  I can’t really imagine Ledger not being nominated for several reasons, but mostly because of his searing performance and his untimely death.

Especially in light of quotes like this from his ex-wife Michelle Williams: “It’s so sad. I guess it’s always changing. What else can I say? I just wake up each day in a slightly different place. Grief is like a moving river, so that’s what I mean by ‘it’s always changing’.It’s a strange thing to say because I’m at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It’s just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone. In some ways it gets worse. That’s what I would say,” speaking about late husband Heath Ledger with Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh.

At Showest, the Las Vegas convention for theater owners, director Chris Nolan and actor Christian Bale were both on hand ot promote this summer’s highly anticipated The Dark Knight.? Luckily, the AP was on hand to film it and get their thoughts on Heath Ledger.

It’s strange how Ledger’s untimely death led the marketing department to shift gears from promoting The Joker to using Harvey Dent/Two Face in the marketing.? Not sure if that was the intent all along, or if the switch was because of Ledger’s death.? Regardless, things have quieted recently on The Dark Knight front, but our interest has not.

This is a fairly interesting work over at Esquire. Lisa Taddeo has written a recreation of actor Heath Ledger’s last days. As a work of fiction it works well. As a testament to the actor it feels icky. It feels like something of a disrespect for his life, but it also works on a level of social critique at all of us who were sweating over the moronic details of his last few days.

Taddeo manages to just straight kill this and make us all feel ikcy for every wondering what happened leading up to Ledger’s death.

It becomes theatrically important, after you die, what your last few days are like.

For me, it was just like any other weekend in my life. I didn’t eat a last meal, I didn’t jerk off any more or any less, I didn’t climb a mountain or end up swinging from a noose with Mozart’s Requiem in the background. But suddenly it’s important exactly what I did, because they are the last few days, and what you do in the last few days, down to your last lunch, becomes a fairy tale.

If you force me to make my last weekend a microcosm of my existence, and what my existence means to you, then I’ll tell you how it went and who I played. But first things first: It was an accident. I’m not some fucked-up star who couldn’t deal. I could deal; I just couldn’t sleep.

Read the entire thing here, which Esquire is calling reported fiction. Whatever that means.

When news first broke of actor Heath Ledger’s death, there was a lot of speculation regarding the chain of events. Did the masseuse call Mary-Kate Olsen after she found the actor’s body? How the hell did he die? And thanks to the rush of news information did the world find out before his family did? Seeing as how everybody knew a mere two hours afterwards, I’m guessing that’s a tasteless yes to the last question.

As to the first one? Well 23/6 got their hands on the incident report from that day and some of those questions have been answered, though in a made up police incident report.

I guess it’s not too soon to be making jokes at Ledger’s expense.

Sometimes it’s the little things. When so much of the viral marketing for The Dark Knight hinged on Heath Ledger’s character The Joker and his website whysoserious.com, Warner Bros. made a small gesture, but a very fitting one. Draped on the website is a simple black ribbon.

Any doubts about the studio handling further marketing of the movie in the wake of this tragedy, as anything less than classy, should be put to rest.

Also: MTV has video of what could be Heath’s final performance. A spy shot some cellphone video of the late actor on the set of the now defunct Terry Gilliam movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

In light of the recent and tragic passing of Heath Ledger, production has shut down after 20 days of filming in London on what would have been his next movie, director Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Ledger was the linchpin in the $30 million dollar project from the cursed director.

Okay, calling Gilliam cursed is a bit harsh, but let’s be real for a moment. This guy has had terrible luck. Whether it was studio interference on projects like Brazil or The Adventures of Baron Von Munchausen, or box-office bombs like Tideland and The Brothers Grimm (for which Ledger also starred) it’s been one thing or another. Which is a shame because he’s quite the filmmaker. There was even a documentary about Gilliam’s quixotic quest to bring The Man From La Mancha to the big screen, which was really one derailing problem after another.

While Ledger wasn’t the star in this movie, funding for the project depended solely on the actor. According to US Magazine:

?I just got the call [Tuesday] saying everyone was being let go,? the on-set source tells Usmagazine.com. ?We were supposed to start this weekend, but obviously they fired everyone today.

?They don?t know yet what they are doing with the footage that was already shot,? the source adds.

Parnassus was supposed to follow an ancient traveling theater company which arrives in modern London with a magical mirror that can transport its audience into fantastical realms of the imagination. Christopher Plummer was supposed to play the Doctor and Ledger’s role was an outsider that fends off the devil, played by Tom Waits.

While conducting interviews with MTV about the Bob Dylan biopic and obviously his role as The Joker in Chris Nolans The Dark Knight, Ledger also talked a bit about his role in the now defunct Gilliam project. In that interview, Ledger said:

?That?s just going to be a hoot,? Ledger smiled. ?It?s going to be fun! Terry couldn?t even tell you what the movie is about,? Ledger laughed. ?It?s mind-bending. I really don?t know how to sum it up.?

Ledger went on to say that ?I love Terry. I?d really do anything for him,? Ledger insisted. ?I?d cut carrots and serve catering on his movies.”

Also: While we’d never attempt at churning out some kind of trite obituary or placing his acting career in context, what’s most sad about Ledger’s death is he never seemed like a bad guy.

He always came off as shy, a bit awkward and slightly uncomfortable in interviews, but intelligent. He supposedly loved playing chess and would often go to Washington Square Park and play with people. I don’t think anyone would call him vapid.

His death feels eerily similar to River Phoenix’s death a decade ago; the difference, however, was it was widely known Phoenix used illicit drugs very recreationally.
The thing that always impressed me about Ledger’s acting chops was his desire to not trade in on his obviously good looks. Almost charting the same path as Brad Pitt, it seemed as if Ledger was more interesting in being a part of interesting projects with good directors or good stories or other good actors. He seemed to hide on screen, even if his physicality as an actor wouldn’t let him.

That was what always impressed me the most - he was searching and prodding and trying to constantly find things that interested him even if they weren’t your “typical” Hollywood career choices. There’s almost nothing more enjoyable than watching a fearless performer and following them as their career evolves. Unfortunately, we won’t have that luxury now with Heath Ledger.

He will be missed. Enjoy this great interview from 2005 with Charlie Rose and director Ang Lee. It was during the time of Brokeback Mountain. Gay cowboy jokes aside, that was one ballsy fucking career move and an even ballsier performance of emotional restraint and quiet anger. Is it possible, in retrespect, that we underestimated just how profound that performance really was? Skip ahead about 30 mins to get to Heath.

Hot on the heels of Empire’s first look at Heath Ledger as the Joker, come six new promo photos of Batman and his archnemisis. It’s nothing spoilerific, but they do offer a new glimpse of the subtle changes made to the batsuit and also to the Joker’s overall posture and costume.

We won’t show you all of them, as you can get the sense of the photos from just a few of them. There is a fine line between being psychotically humorous and comically. Looking back at Jack Nicholson’s Joker, well it’s clear they were going for pure cartoonish comics, whereas here, I think Nolan and Ledger both want the Joker to be seen as something of a nightmare. And in an odd way, I think that this Joker is reminiscent of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series.

The photos come via AICN.

And just in case you missed The Today Show on Friday, and with Al Roker, Meredith Viera and that other dude who dresses real nice, the jolly one was on the set of The Dark Knight. But that’s after the jump. MORE »