Heath Ledger's Modest Mouse Video

Modest Mouse / Heath Ledger

The music video Heath Ledger directed for "King Rat" by Modest Mouse debuted online Tuesday. The six-minute, animated video is both whimsical and dark, showing whales and dolphinsaboard a ship, fishing for humans in the water.

The Dark Knight actor helmed the animated clip for "King Rat," a bonus tune off 2007's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The video was animated by Terry Gilliam (Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).

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In a 2007 interview with VH1 frontman Isaac Brock spoke about the collaboration with Ledger.

"Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, my fiancé and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea," Brock said of the video's origin. "The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it."

The video concludes with a message in white letters on a black screen: "This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit."

Ledger was 28 when he died last year. Modest Mouse announced in March that it would release the video "in honor of Heath's last piece of work as a director," according to spokeswoman Lisa Markowitz. The actor previously directed a video for one of Ben Harper's songs.

Source: Hollywoodreporter.com, Spin.com