When Heath Ledger passed away in January 2008, he had no shortage of things he was working on. Just about everyone in the world, it seems, saw The Dark Knight, but he had smaller projects too. One of those was directing a music video for the band Modest Mouse, for their song “King Rat.” Today, that video debuts on MySpace Music.
The video, which is animated, is meant be a statement against modern whaling practices in Ledger’s home country of Australia. Sadly, Ledger died before he could complete the video, so The Masses, a film and music company Ledger was a partner in, stepped in along with co-director Daniel Auber to finish it.
Obviously, plastering the fact that Ledger directed a video that they have exclusively all over the page would have been an easy way for MySpace to get a ton of traffic. Instead, the main MySpace Music page and the video page itself makes no visible references to Ledger. That seems rather classy, and the video still has over 22,000 plays so far. “This is a pretty meaningful exclusive for us,” MySpace’s VP of Global Communication, Dani Dudeck, tells us.
You can find the video here or below. When it’s on iTunes, proceeds from the video will go towards the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit focusing on marine wildlife conservation.
King Rat
http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=61500391,t=1,mt=video