Heath Ledger

CHICAGO – Sometimes you just need a break, that small window of opportunity to burst through and make the mark. Actor David Dastmalchian knows all about that phenomenon, as he produced and starred in his semi-autobiographical film “Animals,” and got the break of a lifetime landing a role in the film, “The Dark Knight.”

CHICAGO – Believe it or not, it’s already time to start holiday shopping, which means it’s the time of year that studios release lavish gift sets for their most beloved films. No one is better at this holiday season product design than Warner Bros., who has released great Limited Edition sets for “Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factor,” “Ben-Hur,” and the “Harry Potter” films in recent years. The first one this year is one of the best I’ve seen, a gorgeously packaged and beautifully accompanied collection for “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” including awesome physical collectibles and 90 minutes of new special features.

CHICAGO – Remember when you went to see “I Am Legend” at an IMAX screen in 2007 more because you wanted to watch a six minute trailer before the film than an apocalyptic Will Smith movie itself? Well, get ready to map out your way to the nearest IMAX theater again this December.

CHICAGO – While the highly anticipated sequel to the box office-obliterating film “The Dark Knight” is already known by many tentative names (“Batman 3,” “Untitled Batman Project,” “The Dark Knight Returns,” etc.), one fact is now true as of April 30, 2010: its release date on July 20, 2012, according to an announcement by Warner Bros. on that day.

CHICAGO – Oscar-nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” is a great fit for Blu-ray as the luster of 1080p enhances the best thing about the movie. Highly touted as “Heath Ledger’s final film,” history is likely to remember the film as more of a return to form for the director of classics like “Brazil” and “The Fisher King”.

CHICAGO – Bogart, James Dean and Heath Ledger are not dead, they’re just stuck in the Netflix queue. And Ledger, with a little help from some friends, gets one more theatrical release in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.”

CHICAGO – “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas,” the long anticipated final film of Heath Ledger, directed by Terry Gilliam, was previewed last night at the Chicago International Film Festival at their “surprise’ screening.

CHICAGO – The Round-Up, HollywoodChicago.com’s famous recurring column about lesser Blu-Ray and DVD titles that may have slipped through your fingers at the store recently, is in clean-up mode this week. With a DVD collection for a famous young actress, an old cartoon, a straight-to-video horror movie, and three movies with the word “Mountain” in the title, the only word that comes to mind to tie these titles together is “random”.

CHICAGO – The legacy of Oscar winners following their wins with horrible career choices is long and well-recorded. Perhaps the best piece of news about this year’s Academy Award winners is that they are unlikely to produce a “Snow Dogs,” “Gothika,” or “Aeon Flux” any time soon. The upcoming projects for 2009 Academy Award winners is a more promising slate than most years.

CHICAGO – Believe it or not, a lot of people heard about some critically acclaimed 2009 films for the first time on Sunday night, when they won or were nominated for 2009 Academy Awards and are now wondering how they can see winning films like “Milk,” “The Reader,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” and shorts like “La Maison en Petits Cubes” and “Toyland”. Let us guide the way.