After Von Trier’s outrageous and divisive “Antichrist,” when the director announced he would make an ambitious psychological disaster film about the end of the world, it seemed like a logical (and awesome) next step. And one we are greatly looking forward to seeing. Well, Magnolia Pictures have quickly snapped up the North American rights to “Melancholia” and if you’ve been following the progress of the film, you know it’s going to be a doozy.
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier, the film centers on two sisters and their differing reactions to the impending doom of the planet Earth. As Von Trier elaborated last fall, the film will open with the Earth getting crushed and then presumably flash back to how it happened. Dunst and Alexander Skarsgård will play a married couple who slowly come apart as Dunst accepts the fate of the upcoming end of the world, pulling away from both her work and relationship, and settling into a slower pace of life. On the other hand, her sister, played by Gainsbourg, will be panicking with looming end of civilization, and eager to protect the fears of her 6-year-old nephew, will try and shield him from their fate.
Von Trier is still working on the film and he expects to complete it this spring which makes a Cannes premiere looking more and more likely. We’re thrilled that the film already has U.S. distribution in place but we hope that Magnolia gives it a proper release and not a hybrid VOD/limited theatrical thing — if Von Trier is gonna end the world, we want to see it on as big a screen as possible. [IndieWire]