02.19.08: Depp, Law and Farrell step in for Heath Ledger

Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus has been saved from the cinematic dustbin by the combined star wattage of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who have all signed on to play Heath Ledger’s character, Tony, in the film. According to Ain’t It Cool News, the three actors will each feature in one of three separate dimensions that Ledger accesses via a paranormal mirror in Gilliam’s fantasy pic. Sounds like an honorable solution that not only pays tribute to Ledger but will also allow the work he was able to complete on Parnassus to be seen. More at Ain’t It Cool News

Rock The Boat
British rom-com maker Richard Curtis has cast Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Ifans and January Jones in his new film The Boat That Rocked. Branagh and Ifans will play DJs on a pirate radio show in ‘70s England broadcast from a boat, while Jones will play an American woman who visits the boat and falls for Ifans. More at Variety

Wolverine: First Look
According to Hugh Jackman in USA Today’s sneak peak, Wolverine is going to be even meaner and nastier in the X-Men prequel. “I know it seems odd given the guy is already half animal,” says Jackman, “but with all the success of the X-Men, you feel the pressure to keep pushing it further.” More at USA Today

Toshiba Dumps HD-DVD
The Toshiba Corp. officially waved the white flag in the battle of the high-definition home-entertainment formats, abandoning its HD DVD after losing key studios to Sony’s rival Blu-ray technology. The final nail in the coffin came last month when Warner Bros. defected to Blu-ray, leaving HD DVD the 21st century version of Betamax. More at Yahoo! News