Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus  (2009)

The NY Times and CNN are reporting that Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in a Soho apartment. According to this NY Times blog post, a housekeeper let a masseuse into the apartment for an appointment, and when they knocked on his bedroom door and there was no response, they went in and found him unconscious. Unnamed pills were allegedly found near the body.

Ledger, of course, was one of the Bob Dylans in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There; he also stars as the Joker in this summer’s eagerly anticipated Batman sequel, The Dark Knight. He recently split with Michelle Williams, with whom he had a child.

More details as they come in.

UPDATE: In the comments, Chris wonders if Ledger was finished shooting The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus with Terry Gilliam. According to this CBS story, filming was still in progress.

UPDATE 6:15 EST: The NY Times blog post linked above has been updated to say that Ledger was found in an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen. Both STAR and TMZ are referring to the apartment as belonging to Ledger. Olsen has a high-profile cameo in The Wackness, which premiered this weekend to wildly mixed reviews at Sundance.

UPDATE 6:29 EST: NYT is now using the word “suicide.” TMZ apparently has a spy close to the scene who says the medical examiner is on the way. In their typically classy fashion, they’re running with the headline, “Ledger Death Bed Strewn With Pills.”

UPDATE 6:45 EST: TMZ is now reporting essentially the opposite of the NY Times. The AOL-owned gossip site says that Ledger, a recovering addict, accidentally overdosed in an apartment that “was not owned by Mary-Kate Olsen or related to her in any way.”

We made the most recent entry to our Sundance deal chart late Sunday, and since then, there just hasn’t been anything firm to report. In fact, from Sunday to Tuesday, I think there have been more “why aren’t movies selling” think pieces in places like Variety and the New York Times than their have been actual deals throughout the course of the festival. Of course, nobody really knows what the problem is, but everyone’s willing to hazard a guess.

In her writeup for Variety proper, Anne Thompson said buyers are holding out for “that magic combo of an easy-to-market movie that will earn great reviews”; on her blog, she said buyers “are looking for love. And some may not have found it yet.” David M. Halbfinger’s NYT piece suggests that buyers are holding out in the hopes that prices wold drop. He also manages to find a way to blame bloggers for the sluggishness, with a quote from Sony’s Tom Bernard:

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Under discussion:

Sherman's March  (1986)

Four Eyed Monsters  (2005)

When I first wrote about A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, based solely on the film’s Sundance catalog synopsis, I pegged it as “like Sherman???s March, but British, and 1/3 as long, and seemingly not at all concerned with vague parallels to 19th century history!” Having seen the film with an extremely enthusiastic press corps, I can confirm that Chris Waitt’s debut feature *is* a little like Sherman’s March, but the ancestral lineage of this undeniable crowd-pleaser is more complicated than I could have guessed. At its best, this heavily constructed slice of auto-videography is a lot like a Nick Broomfield remake of Four Eyed Monsters, except with a budget for car commercial cast-off source cues and an extremely problematic relationship with the kind of fearless personal honesty that Arin Crumley and Susan Buice have turned into a brand.

The hapless 30-something director, with his ever-present stubble, saggy ripped jeans and dishwater moptop, is a dead ringer for Kurt Cobain circa 1994 (I would have pegged this as “retro” affectation, if every other character on screen hadn’t made a derisive comment about the director/star’s lack of grooming acumen and style). Speaking directly to the camera from a home office resembling a teenager’s bedroom, Waitt explains that, as his girlfriend of three weeks has just dumped him, he’s decided to track down as many former flames as possible and interview each, in order to figure out what he’s been doing wrong and hopefully figure out how to find true love/avoid future dumpings.

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