Terry Gilliam has halted production of his latest film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and the crew has reportedly been sent home after the untimely death of Heath Ledger, one of the film's stars.

Ledger was on a break from filming when he died Tuesday. Shooting had begun in London last December. He was last photographed on set Jan. 19.

Gilliam is most famous for his unconventional imagery and narrative styles in such fims as Brazil and more recently, Tideland.  The director is also famous for his "curse".

In the mid-1990s, Gilliam's project Time Bandits 2 was cancelled as several of the original actors had died. His attempts to direct attempted to direct  Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities fell through due to disagreements over its budget and choice of lead actor.

Gilliam's most notorious spate of bad luck occured in 1999, when the filming of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was plagued by a series of crises, including health problems and severe floods. Gilliam hired a second crew to document the process, producing the documentary Lost in La Mancha, about the cancelled production that resulted in an insurance claim worth US$15 million.