The Queensland Government says actor Heath Ledger will be posthumously honoured for his contribution to the Australian film industry with the 2008 Chauvel Award.
The 28-year-old Perth-born actor died in his New York apartment in January of an accidental prescription drug overdose.
At the program launch for the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF), State Arts Minister Rod Welford said Ledger had supported the local film industry.
“Over the years, there have been many others who have drawn focus to the Australian film industry either through their own personal achievements in their field or their consistent and staunch support for Australian film-making,” Mr Welford said.
“Heath Ledger did both, and his passing highlighted how loved and revered he was - not just by fans, but by the Australian film-making community.”
The award presentation will take place in August. It will be hosted by the co-host of ABC1’s The Movie Show, David Stratton, and will include interview and film material from Ledger’s career.
Previous recipients of the award include director George Miller and actors Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson.
I’ve been trying to write a film review for “The Dark Knight” and finding it nearly impossible. I mean, why write an ordinary review for a film that is anything but ordinary? So instead, I decided to write this letter to you, the man I’ve come to know over the past few years and more recently — especially in the wake of your untimely death earlier this year — to greatly admire.
Certainly I have great praise for “The Dark Knight.” It’s breathtaking — an all-out achievement in filmmaking. And yet, it feels equally important to pay tribute to a man who delivered such a dedicated performance in his last full role as The Joker, ultimately pushing “The Dark Knight” from the realm of great film to the one of haunting masterpiece.
Heath, I have no idea how the afterlife works or what has become of your talented soul, but I hope somewhere, somehow, you are able to hear this.
Viewing “The Dark Knight,” I knew I was witnessing a cinematic masterpiece the moment I began to lose touch with reality: The theater transformed into the streets of Gotham City and the people around me slowly disappeared.
All of the film’s characters — especially your Joker, became real to me. Christian Bale’s return as Bruce Wayne/Batman is powerful and fierce, and at the same time somewhat poetic. Batman has established a code for himself in which he will not kill, and throughout the film that commitment is tested to the fullest extent.
Other performances, such as Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordan and Aaron Eckhart as DA Harvey Dent, are also great. You were lucky to work with such an amazing cast, Heath, and I’m positive that everyone involved with “The Dark Knight” felt the same way about you.
If your director, Christopher Nolan, keeps up this level of work, I’m sure his name will one day join the likes of Scorsese and Hitchcock. His vision is flawlessly carried out; the way he captures the essence of the film’s environment, characters and storyline.
Australian lawyers have claimed Heath Ledger’s daughter Matilda Rose is entitled to the majority of his $20m fortune, according to reports.
The two-year-old, who lives in New York with her mother actress Michelle Williams, was not born when Ledger drew up the document and does not appear on his will. The document currently divides the star’s wealth between his parents and three sisters.
However, the Australian Daily Telegraph has reported that after the will’s executors applied for probate in the West Australian Supreme Court they were advised that under state law the bulk of the late actor’s money would be awarded to Matilda.
If Ms Williams decided to claim the money on behalf of her daughter, she would have to submit an official affidavit, which could be made public, the newspaper said.
Last week, the executors of Ledger’s estate, Robert Collins and Mark Dyson, advertised in a Perth newspaper for “creditors and other persons” with claims on the estate to come forward and lodge them by August 11. This will ensure that any debts are cleared before the estate is divided.
Documents filed after Ledger’s death show he had $145,000 worth of assets in the United States, however his total fortune, mostly held in Australia, has been estimated at $20million.
Ledger’s father and stepmother were sighted last night attending the New York premiere of the actor’s penultimate film, The Dark Knight.
Kim Ledger, actor’s father, and his wife Ines, bypassed the red carpet which was black in his honour.
Leaving the cinema, Mr Ledger - who had already seen the film - simply gave a thumbs-up, reported People magazine.
Ledger is tipped to receive a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker in the Batman Returns sequel.
Ledger, 28, died in January after an accidental prescription drug overdose.
If the number of advance tickets sold is any indication, his new movie, The Dark Knight, likely will become one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. But few people who see it will walk away with Bale’s name on their lips.
They’ll be talking about Heath Ledger. Even without the sentimental distinction of being the late actor’s last role, Ledger’s performance as the Joker is the best thing about the movie.
The performance, writes Ty Burr in the Boston Globe, “makes you mourn a gifted man’s stupid death with fresh and vigorous sorrow.”
“He’s mesmerizing in every scene,” enthuses David Denby in The New Yorker.
Before The Dark Knight opened, a campaign was in the works to award Ledger a posthumous supporting actor Oscar. He would become the first actor so rewarded since Peter Finch won for Network in 1977.
It should surprise no one if Warner Bros. is discovered helping to orchestrate the groundswell — it’s their job to market the movie, and their performance in that regard is as relentless as the Joker’s siege on Gotham City.
But the work lives up to the hype.
As director, Christopher Nolan’s strategy in The Dark Knight, as it was in Batman Begins, is to leaven the comic book spectacle with as much reality as it will hold. To my mind, he was far more successful in the richly layered Batman Begins than here, but Ledger’s Joker — with all of his odd ticks and Grand Guignol excesses — somehow improbably anchors this movie.
As is evident from Jack Nicholson’s acting work in the 1989 Batman movie (or Cesar Romero’s work on the camp 1960s Batman TV series), it is easy to lapse into caricature in this role. The Joker, by definition, is over the top — a magician of mayhem, a sadistic killer in clown makeup, with the sickest sense of humor imaginable. But Ledger makes him full-bodied, magnetic and complex.
It’s not so much that we believe this creature could exist off screen, but Ledger makes us certain that, if he did exist, he would be just like this.
This Joker’s triumph as a character isn’t all Ledger’s doing, of course. His lines were written for him. And the scene that stands out the most in my memory — it still brings a smile to my face — works as well as it does thanks to the costumer and makeup artist as much as Ledger’s actorly choices and precision.
Poor Bale. But how can his Bruce Wayne / Batman compete?
Something similar happened with Batman Begins. The movie solidified the actor’s hold on stardom — you might even say it made him a star, given the box office performance of his previous movies — but it was a director’s film. Nolan, rightly, won acclaim for bringing a vitality, emotional depth and grit to the Batman saga that previously had not existed on film.
The Dark Knight is a director’s film, too. There unquestionably is a grand vision at work here, and that vision belongs to Nolan.
Though it may be over-praised, the movie — borne aloft by a wave of ecstatic critical opinion, saturation marketing and cross-promotional partnerships — is without question an Event, the rare summer “popcorn movie” that actually may find its most enthusiastic following among adults.
It is a phenomenon, pure and simple. Its opening weekend domestic gross may reach $130 million. It’s playing on a record 4,366 screens, and Nikki Finke reports on her L.A. Weekly blog that nearly all of the 1,600 IMAX screens in the country have sold out in advance of the opening, according to her industry sources.
There is no way to tell what percentage of the audience will go because of Ledger, but the movie has been widely spoken of since January as “Ledger’s final performance,” that fact eclipsing in many minds the significance of it being the sequel to perhaps the best comic-book movie ever made.
Batman Begins was a success, but its $371.8 million worldwide gross wasn’t spectacular, especially for a film that cost $150 million to make. Tracking figures indicate far greater familiarity and appeal for the sequel. The marketing juggernaut accounts for much of that, but Ledger undoubtedly also is a factor.
The depth of commitment by Ledger’s fans wasn’t apparent to many people until he died.
It isn’t an overstatement to say the outpouring of grief for an actor just coming into his own was reminiscent of that surrounding James Dean at the time of his death. Dean also died, shockingly, before his star reached its zenith. Both Rebel Without a Cause and Giant were released after Dean’s death. The raw greatness of his performances in these posthumously released movies burnished a legend that still is with us.
Ledger had done his best work in Brokeback Mountain, for which he was nominated an Oscar two years before he died. It would seem unrealistic to expect his work in a comic-book movie to equal or surpass it, but that is what has happened. His Joker performance makes it all too painfully clear what greatness likely lay ahead.
The combination of Ledger’s achievement here and sentimental regard — not to mention clever studio marketing — may make the movie one for the record books.
It may be the most buzzed about film role of the year. And the late Heath Ledger’s family was in full force to see their beloved son/brother play the Joker at last night’s premiere of “The Dark Knight.”
Not big fans of glitz and glamour, Heath’s dad Kim and stepmother Ines made a beeline for the doors at the AMC Loews Lincoln Center cinema. Heath’s mother Sally Bell and her husband, along with Heath’s older sister Kate also showed up.
And as Kim Ledger emerged from the theater, it was clear that he gave his seal of approval to the film as well as his son’s performance with a big ‘thumbs up.’ He told press it was “very good” to be in attendance.
Co-star Christian Bale also offered encouraging words about Heath’s performance in the film. “Working with Heath was fantastic. He steals the movie and I’m quite happy to say that. He’s a hell of a talent and created a joker that’s very iconic and one that will become a classic portrayal of the ages.”
The cult of the late Heath Ledger is set to grow with his astonishing performance in the new Batman film. Sean Porter was on set with the troubled Hollywood star for his last ever shoot. Here, he reveals what happened during those three manic – and spookily portentous – days
I’m breathless and Heath Ledger is downright furious. He rips off his frilly clown hat and hurls it to the floor. It’s a minute past midnight and the cameramen are looking at their watches and mumbling stuff about “the union”. The director Terry Gilliam is beside himself too, as he scrambles around the set of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus to persuade his mutinous crew to agree to one more take; but it’s too late – the permit to film ran out at midnight, and pieces of equipment are already being hastily stashed into their silver flight-boxes, ready for the next job.
In a final attempt to salvage the situation, Heath joins Terry in petitioning them: “C’mon guys… Please! Just one more take… Just one more. I mean, c’mon, what difference is another 10 minutes going make?” But it’s all in vain as they continue packing.
As it will transpire, the scene that’s just been shot – a vile mob giving chase to Heath Ledger through the winding backstreets of London’s East End – will be the last he’ll ever shoot. I was a member of that mob; and in roughly 72 hours, Ledger’s dead body will be found by his personal masseur in his loft apartment in New York City.
Citing an unnamed source — you know, one of those reliable anonymous types — Showbiz Spyis reporting that Michelle Williams plans to make a movie about her late ex, Heath Ledger, in order to provide a record of him for the former couple’s toddler, Matilda. No details have been released yet, which leaves a lot of questions up in the air. Is it going to be a straightforward documentary? A biopic? Some mixture of both? If this source is to be trusted, it seems unlikely that Williams simply wants to assemble family footage to screen privately for her daughter when she gets older. A Ledger film made for general audiences would probably reveal his unrealized career intentions and help solidify his posthumous James Dean-like reputation, but it’s hard to say what approach Williams would want to take, since we don’t even know what role she’ll have in the production (producer? director? consultant?).
Based on the skimpy information provided by Showbiz Spy, Williams’ idea sounds somewhat similar to a recent documentary project that’s been riding the festival to great acclaim in recent months: Kurt Kuenne’s devastating Dear Zachary: A Letter to his Son About His Father, which begins with the documentarian planning to collect the memories of his murdered friend for the departed man’s young child (the story takes a shocking turn after the first hour or so). Whatever the final product, surely Williams wants to avoid letting E! True Hollywood Story have the final say on Ledger’s myth. Who can blame her?
We’ve spotted a trio of early reviews for The Dark Knight that share one common denominator: this film kicks all sorts of ass and will haul in much bank.Both Varitey.com and HollywoodReporter.com published glowing reviews practically handing Heath Ledger an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and we’re only halfway through the year.
Hollywood Reporter sums up their experience by describing The Dark Knight as “One nervy blend of top entertainment and thoughtful character study.”
Variety makes a similar assessment with “An ambitious, full-bodied crime epic of gratifying scope and moral complexity, this is brainy pop entertainment that satisfies every expectation.”
Over at Rolling Stone, Peter Travers declares, “Nolan and crew have created something close to a masterpiece,” unable to conjure nary of word of criticism to type.
George ‘El Guapo’ Roush over at LatinoReview.com offers a more grounded — and alcohol flavored — view of The Dark Knight. He slaps it with an A- minus grade and points out some script silliness that doesn’t mesh with the rest of the flick. He also doesn’t believe Ledger’s performance is Oscar quality, preferring Aaron Eckhart’s work as Harvey Dent/Two-Face to the maniacal, but not maniacal enough Joker.
The proclamation George makes that many will be arguing two weeks from now speaks for itself: “Iron Man is still the best comic book movie so far this year.”
“I’m still a kid. I’m like six years old. But it’s just a matter of wanting to get up, it’s just a big journey. I felt like when I left home that I was on a journey, and I still am.” — Heath Ledger
Enjoy!
