Australian actor Heath Ledger’s final performance before he died of an accidental overdose in January 2008 nearly never made it to the big screen, US-born director Terry Gilliam said.

The film maker’s first thought when Ledger died in New York was to ditch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which was only half finished.

But encouraged by people around him to continue, and helped by actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell who played Ledger’s character in three separate dream sequences, Gilliam eventually completed the movie.

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