Heath Ledger found dead

[Righ]

What's bad is that he's irreplaceable. At least by someone in his age range.

We are not a age range full of good actors. In fact, mostly (all) dreck.

Don't have to do many degrees of separation there - Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, but also Donnie Darko) is a great character actor. How about Joseph Gordon Levitt, Ryan Gosling or one of ours, James McAvoy?

[stray]

Oh yeah, McAvoy is cool. Good call.

And yeah, Gyllenhaal is pretty good. Almost as good as Ledger was in Brokeback.

[schild]

Jake could be good.

But somehow he picks movies that are about 400x less entertaining than Ledger's.

Right now, my little, shining, underused star Kieran Culkin needs to step up to bat. He could be an absolutely excellent actor. I thought Igby Goes Down was better than the entire sum of Gyllenhaal's career.

[dusematic]

Jesus Christ.  Look, I feel bad the guy died but does that mean we have to start talking about how 10 Things I Hate About You, Cassanova, A Knight's Tale, and all of his other horrible films were so great?

[Tale]

Jesus Christ.  Look, I feel bad the guy died but does that mean we have to start talking about how 10 Things I Hate About You, Cassanova, A Knight's Tale, and all of his other horrible films were so great?

I'd rather speculate on the involvement of Mary-Kate Olsen and her bodyguards.

Bodyguards got to Heath first - did they "clean up" the scene, e.g. illegal drugs?

Heath's body was still warm - the delay in calling an ambulance may be more important than first thought

Masseuse may be charged, doesn't have a licence - and she is clearly beholden to Olsen

[dusematic]

You're right.  It's super fishy.  This needs to be delved into more deeply.  There was like a 30 minute interval between the masseuse finding a dead Heath, and a 911 call.  And in that period there were two calls made to an Olsen?  Sketch.

[Tale]

Nine minutes as I understand it, not 30.

Masseuse made three calls to Olsen in nine minutes, then a 911 call, then another call to Olsen.

[dusematic]

I'm trying to think of why three calls would be necessary, apart from the "Holy shit!" factor.  There had to be some reason Olsen needed to know before the paramedics.  But I'm not coming up with anything too compelling. 

[Samwise]

Mary-Kate was somehow responsible and the masseuse kept calling to weasel more money out of her in exchange for silence?

[Zetleft]

Ever since hearing about the Olsen calls and her 'people' getting there first or at the same time as the cops I've had the term The Olsen Army in my head, and it makes me laugh   

[DraconianOne]

On a slightly less conspiritorial note, Chris Nolan has finally put pen to paper about his experience working with Ledger on The Dark Knight:

"Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren't many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we'd have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we'd done with all that he'd given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly."

Source: newsweek

[Riggswolfe]

Wow, I hadn 't even thought about how this would effect people like Nolan. I bet that is very sad for him.

[stray]

Not to be rude, but I wonder if has any footage to re-write the fate of the Joker. More than likely, he was probably going to leave some room for the character to continue on in future films.

[Ironwood]

Watched Grimm last night.

Was Sad.  It's a damn shame.

Daughter too.  Some things are just not right.

 

[DraconianOne]

Not to be rude, but I wonder if has any footage to re-write the fate of the Joker. More than likely, he was probably going to leave some room for the character to continue on in future films.

No reason why it still can't.  When dear old Richard Harris died, they just got Micheal Gambon to carry on in Harry Potter.

[Ironwood]

Badly.


Very, very fucking badly.

The trouble comes when one guy Nails the Part.  Anyone else just looks like dross.

[Mazakiel]

And by what little I've seen, and what I've read from those who've seen more, Heath Ledger really fucking nailed the Joker.

[Stormwaltz]

Jesus Christ.  Look, I feel bad the guy died but does that mean we have to start talking about how 10 Things I Hate About You, Cassanova, A Knight's Tale, and all of his other horrible films were so great?

I don't recall saying I thought "Ten Things" was great. I said I liked him in it. Important difference.

He was given a crappy sterotyped role, and managed (to me) to come off likable despite it.

[stray]

Yeah, Michael Gambon is no replacement for Richard Harris (one of my favorites). Seems like it could be the case with this too.

Not that I don't think other people could play the Joker (there are many), but if this guy ended up being perfect for it, it'll be a shame (of course, it's a shame anyhow..but you know what I mean).

[Signe]

I like Michael Gambon.  I used to sleep through repeats of Maigret when we went to visit my in-laws at Christmas.  Good times.  That's excitement in Dunoon, you know.

[Abagadro]

Hey, leave Gambon alone, he has a corner named after him.

[stray]

I don't dislike him... It's just that Richard Harris was one of those badasses that could make just about anything good. One part of the Holy Trinity of shitfaced UK acting geniuses -- Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, and then Richard Harris. As for Harry Potter itself, his version is much more warm, endearing, and quirky than Gambon's.

[Ironwood]

I'm not getting at Gambon.  But it's almost universally agreed that the Dumbledore he's playing on screen is simply not the Dumbledore from the novels, the one that was NAILED by Richard Harris.

He played that sweetness, that whimsical nature, the sly stupidity and even the Steel that Dumbledore from the books had.

Gambon just comes off as an angry old man.

[DraconianOne]

I have to go with you on this - it wasn't the best example.  Point was really that neither the character nor the story in Dark Knight needs to be changed because Ledger will sadly not be around in the future to reprise the role.

But to carry on the derail into characters that were played by different people and that subsequent versions were better how about:

James Bond: Craig's better than Brosnan by far.
Dr Who: Tennant > Eccleston > McCoy > Baker*

And the ultimate: Travis from Blake's Seven.  Brian Croucher was far superior in that role to Stephen Grief. 

[Ironwood]

Not going to argue, since you're mostly right.

(McCoy better than Baker ?  You're Insane.)

[Tebonas]

I slightly disagree on the Dr Who part. I found Eccleston better, more alien than Tennant. Though they were both good.

[Margalis]

But to carry on the derail into characters that were played by different people and that subsequent versions were better how about:

Catwoman: Halle Berry > Michelle Pfe...

No, I can't even type that with a straight face. Michelle Pfeiffer could never be on the right-hand side of a less-than symbol. Michelle Pfeiffer rules over all.

[stray]

Everytime a Bond is replaced, it's like a "reset" of the franchise in a way. I don't watch Dr. Who, but I imagine that the various incarnations are from completely seperate productions? So when you get a new Dr. Who, you're getting a whole bunch of new stuff along with it. It'd be another thing if some of these Dr. Who actors were replaced by someone else mid-season. Then I could see a comparison.

I don't know.. Having another Joker just doesn't seem right, now that it was settled. Unless it's outside of Nolan's particular take on it, in another, completely different adaptation of Batman. So it's not that I think Heath is the be all end all of Jokers (obviously, I haven't even seen it). I'd just like things to not stand out like that. I'd prefer it if the Joker just got killed in this upcoming version.

[Tebonas]

Don't know about the old doctors, but the new ones are from the same production.

[DraconianOne]

Not going to argue, since you're mostly right.

(McCoy better than Baker ?  You're Insane.)

Would it help if I actually finished my post and put the subscript here?

*Colin - not Tom

[Ironwood]

There was no such Doctor.  No-one by the name Colin Baker has ever played the Doctor.

I don't know what you're talking about.

[IainC]

Not going to argue, since you're mostly right.

(McCoy better than Baker ?  You're Insane.)

Would it help if I actually finished my post and put the subscript here?

*Colin - not Tom

401 error: abomination not found.

Tom Baker was the last decent Doctor. All the others since have been lukewarm at best.

[Tale]

Tom Baker is and always will be Dr Who. Every other actor who plays the role will tell you that.

[Riggswolfe]

Tom Baker is and always will be Dr Who. Every other actor who plays the role will tell you that.

I don't even watch Dr. Who but I did watch a little when he was it. Even I, the non-Who-educated, know that Tom Baker is the Doctor. It's the scarf I think.

[Bunk]

Even though I grew up watching Baker, is it ok that I admit that the Pertwee run was my favorite?