Dr Parnassus Lacking Investment Backing

The film was independently financed, costing £14m / $20m to make, and was finished August 2008. However, the film is still struggling to find a buyer, despite the huge amount of publicity. Negotiations with several prospective partners are ongoing, but as of yet there have been no takers, and so no release date. Unbelievably, this means if a distributor cannot be found, and willing to pay the going rate for rights to screen it in the cinemas... then Dr Parnassus would go straight to DVD.

Rumoured to be the one main concern among potential buyers is the film's complicated synopsis. Director Terry Gilliam is considered too experimental within recent years, producing works such as 'Tideland', and 'The Brothers Grimm'. Dr Parnassus, despite it's obvious link to Ledger, and the current heavy-weight connections to Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law, the film is now considered a risk, and feared it will not be accepted by the wider general audience.

Hard to believe that even today... Hollywood is still wary of taking a gamble, especially where the big bucks are concerned. It's okay to verbally praise such a project, but parting with green stuff is something else entirely. But surely anyone with half a ounce of sense would realise that a film with so much story, and iconic status already attached, is likely to make a viable option, rather than not. But to claim the plot content is regarded too complex for your average audience, is not only insulting to film goers world-wide, but hardly a message of an encouragement for our potential film-makers in the making either! What happened to individual taste, making an individual choice, and indeed individual talent... after all, we are not all the same are we?

Doctor Parnassus deserves the commitment of the big boys investment club... if not, then the Hollywood film industry will only confirm what most of us already suspect: Profit comes first... not the audience.

Gemini