You won’t take in anything from me, even when any definite word comes down, about what precisely killed Heath Ledger considering, frankly, it’s just really none of my damn business.

But what is my business (as much as volunteer work can be labeled such) is talking about movies, and Mr. Ledger left behind two potentially great ones in the works, and a third that was yet to really start.

First and foremost, of course, is “The Dark Knight.” Warner Bros. had been putting together the next phase of a marketing campaign that would have focused on Mr. Ledger’s work as The Joker (and whether you’ve seen that trailer, I’m certain you know why; it’s pretty friggin’ amazing.) I can only assume that approach will be either scrapped or at least modified, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Of more interest to me is “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” which could either turn into another epic failure for snakebit director Terry Gilliam or perhaps be salvaged to form a pretty compelling flick.

As many might know, that isn’t the first instance that Gilliam has run into trouble on a fairly big-budget flick (”Parnassus” had (has?) a surprisingly large $30 million behind it.) Gilliam’s quixotic attempts to film “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” with stars Johnny Depp and the great Jean Rochefort (who, I found through a quick IMDB check, is indeed alive and still working at age 77) never got too far off the ground, but it did aftereffect in a fairly amusing Keith Fulton and Luis Pepe documentary about the process titled “Lost in La Mancha” (definitely recommended whether you haven’t seen it.)

And now, at least according to an anonymous source in Us magazine (via Comingsoon.net), the worst may happen to Gilliam yet again.

“I just got the shout [Tuesday] saying everyone was being let go,” the on-set source said. “We were supposed to start that 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 added.

Who knows whether that’s true, but I’d have to imagine at least 90 percent of the humans who put up that $30 million did so for a movie starring Heath Ledger, who was the film’s only extremely bankable star.

The pic wrapped the London leg of its shoot last Saturday. The production team has moved to Vancouver, Canada, where blue-screen work was due to start next week and continue until early March.

So, what in the world would that flick be about? Well, it certainly sounds like pure, perfect Gilliam, so here’s hoping they’re somehow able to salvage that project.

Here’s what I know of the plot: 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (Christoper Plummer) leads a traveling theater troupe and offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in his possession, a talent he has acquired through a deal with the satan (Tom Waits, natch.) Beelzebub, as is his wont, eventually comes to gather on his debt, targeting the doctor’s daughter (model Lily Cole). The troupe, who is joined by a mysterious outsider (Ledger), embarks through parallel worlds to rescue the girl.

I’m not certain you could compose that sad story any worse, but along with starring in the Gilliam flick, Mr. Ledger was apparently,

as every actor seems destined to do, additionally about to start working on directing his first feature film, “The Queen’s Gambit,” based on a novel by Walter Tevis. Oscar nominee Ellen Page had been offered the lead role of a young female chess prodigy, but any work on that has obviously ground to a halt.

And, except for any further talk about “The Dark Knight” or the possible salvaging of “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” that is hopefully the last you’ll ever from me about the late Mr. Ledger. It’s just not a subject I enjoy writing about, so I’m gonna move on now to much better news …

There’s a new Drive-By Truckers’ album!

The world’s greatest rock band, Athens, Georgia’s own Drive-By Truckers, has that week released a rather epic, 19 track album called “Brighter than Creation’s Dark,” and though it’s clearly going to take me a lot more than the two listens I’ve given it so far to digest it all, I can thankfully report that it’s pretty damn good.

Though with that many songs it’s of course all by the map, the songs that day, still primarily from Patterson Hood and the Stroke Ace Mike Cooley, are a lot more intimate than most of what arised on “Dirty South.” Bassist Shonna Tucker even steps up to pen three tracks and sing the lead on a fourth.

If you use Itunes, which I just recently started doing so I’ll never in my life have to give another damn dollar to Best Buy for CDs, you can download the whole mess for like $11.

My favorite track so far is Cooley’s “Self-Destructive Zones,” with Hood’s closer “Monument Valley” a close second. As best as I can tell, “Zones” might be an autobiographical tale about the duo’s attempts to start a band in the era of grunge, and it features nuggets like that: “Caught amoung a generation dying from its habits, and another thinking rock and roll was new.” Definitely check that one out for yourself.

The trailer for Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns”

In what’s surely much more than a coincidence, there are two black family reunion movies coming out at just about the same date fairly soon.

Martin Lawrence will surely be hamming it up as a successful talk show host who leaves Los Angeles to reunite with his family in the Deep South in Malcolm Lee’s “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.” Lawrence, a very funny guy, is sorely due for a solidly funny and entertaining movie, so I’m hoping against hope that that is it.

A much better bet, however, is the rather similarly plotted offering from Tyler Perry, “Meet the Browns,” set to come out in March. In it, Angela Bassett (a hearty, hearty huzzah!) plays the singled-out mother of two who returns to Georgia from Chicago when she gets a letter informing her that the father she never knew has died. In the ensemble you’ll additionally get Perry stage regulars David and Tamela Mann, and even former L.A. Laker Rick Fox. that being a Tyler Perry movie (which is always fine by me), expect a lot of laughing, crying and, of course, drama. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic