A music video that was directed by the late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger has been released by Modest Mouse.

The video for 'King Rat', which featured as a bonus track on the band's 2007 album 'We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank', came about after a chance meeting between Ledger and Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brook.

“Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, my fiancй and some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea. The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an email saying that he wanted to do it”, Brook told VH1 in 2007.

Reportedly conceived by Ledger to highlight the commercial whaling industry that thrives of the coast of Australia the video reverses the roles of whaling and sees humans hunted by blood thirsty whales before being skinned and made into pet food.

The animated video that premièred yesterday on Myspace and was unable to be completed before Ledger's death in January 2008, also features animation from film director Terry Gilliam.

(by Andrew Almond)