Lars von Trier Initiates World Annihilation with 'Melancholia' Trailer

The trailer for Lars von Trier’s next film, Melancholia, has been unveiled. Von Trier, the infamous Danish filmmaker whose movies cast a dim light on the future well-being of people’s genitals, finds himself dabbling in science fiction with Melancholia, about a wedding which coincides with the discovery of a hidden planet behind the sun. Von Trier has said the film will begin with the destruction of planet Earth, explaining, “In this way, you don’t have to sit and form theories about what will happen, but can delve down into some other levels and become interested in the pictures and the universe–that’s what I imagine.”

Here’s a peek at this latest missive from von Trier’s dark imagination (slightly NSFW for some brief nudity):

Kirsten Dunst, an underrated actress whose talents haven’t always matched the mainstream Hollywood fare she’s been shoehorned into, has excelled at quiet, resigned doom in the Sofia Coppola films Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides, and looks to be bringing some of that same, er, “magic” to the bride in Melancholia. Because basically, when von Trier is casting a female lead, “Quiet, Resigned Doom” is probably the only box he’s looking to check. Just ask her co-star Charlotte Gainsbourg, who spent Antichrist‘s two hours grieving for her dead child and doing some nasty things to her naughty bits. Also glimpsed in the trailer are John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård as Dunst’s groom, an awkward Charlotte Rampling, and Kiefer Sutherland, whose presence in a project like this surprises me after years of shooting kneecaps and taking names on 24.

The film is likely to premiere at Cannes next month, with an as-yet-unannounced U.S. release date.