Movieline

Heath Ledger's Posthumous Music Video: Skinned Humans, Cigar-Chomping Whales

Back in 2007, Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock revealed that Heath Ledger had plans to shoot a video for one of the band's songs "King Rat," using animation from Ledger's friend Terry Gilliam. The actor died several months later while shooting Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and while Gilliam underwent his own hurdles to finish his film, so too did Modest Mouse eventually pick up the pieces and complete Ledger's music video.

Gilliam doesn't appear to have ultimately contributed to the project (which premiered today on MySpace), but Ledger's imprimatur is plainly visible in its plot: Whales hunt and poach humans for food, turning the tables on what the actor saw as animal cruelty off the coast of Australia.

Here's the video: