Heath Ledger's Anti-Whaling Music Video Released Online
A music video directed by Heath Ledger, which illuminates the late actor's passion for animal rights and his close creative relationship with director Terry Gilliam, has been released online.
Ledger was 28 when he died of an accidental drug overdose in January 2008. His last film, Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, will be released in the UK in October. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law stepped in to shoot the scenes Ledger did not complete.
The video, for King Rat, a rare single by American indie band Modest Mouse, was also left unfinished and has been completed by Gilliam and a collective of directors and artists who call themselves The Masses. The six-minute animation imagines a world in which whales are the hunters, scouring the seas for human prey.
Full of Gilliam-esque flourishes (there are even trumpets appearing from the clouds), the video started out as a collaboration between Ledger and Daniel Auber, a concept designer he met while working on another Gilliam film, 2005's The Brothers Grimm. The pair worked on the promo while Ledger was in London filming his acclaimed, Oscar-winning performance as the Joker in last year's The Dark Knight.
"We had a lot of fun making this video, but obviously it is a serious video," Auber, who was primarily responsible for the animation, told the Times. "Heath was very interested in defending the lives of whales and dolphins ... So it was very important for him to make a video that would make an impact. We needed to have the shock factor because if it wasn't dark it wouldn't be impressive, and if it wasn't impressive nobody would think about what we are doing to wildlife in the ocean."
The video has now been made available for download through iTunes, with all proceeds in the first month going to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Enjoy:
The video doesn't have audio because Sony removed it based on copyright, but you can still see the music video Heath directed
