Mike Fleming at Deadline New York reports that Kirsten Dunst (SPIDER-MAN) will be taking the lead role in Danish director Lars Von Trier’s $7-million science-fiction disaster film, MELANCHOLIA, which is about a giant planet on a collision course with Earth. Dunst is replacing Penelope Cruz, who jumped ship to appear in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON THE STRANGER TIDES – which is good news for MELANCHOLIA and not so good news for the PIRATES sequel (although why anyone would expect anything good out of that overblown franchise at this point is anyone’s guess).
Von Trier – perhaps jokingly – promised “no…happy endings” for the film. His producer says:
The film will be “a mix of spectacular, cinematic imagery with Dogme-style hand-held camerawork,” according to producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen. And “romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way.”
Filming starts in July. The cast also includes Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling (of Von Trier’s ANTI-CHRIST), Alexander Skarsgaard, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Udo Keir.