Just yesterday, we asked, “could Penelope Cruz be Lars von Trier’s leading lady for his psychological disaster film, “Melancholia”?
Various European media outlets were reporting that the Spanish star would be working with the Danish enfante terrible and we hoped it would be true. But it sounds like it’s probably not going to happen according to a new Danish report.
The director’s “Antichrist” recently swept the Film Academy of Denmark Awards (their Oscars) taking seven awards including Best Picture, Director, Editing, Screenplay, Cinematography, Sound Design (yes, soo deserved), and Special Effects. Translation are sketchy, but enough material is there to get the gist of it. It appears that after the Awards, von Trier’s editor Anders Refn and a ‘Melancholia’ producer Louise Foldager were on Danish television and responded to the Cruz rumor as a “half-truth” at best.
The terrible google translation is that “Penelope Cruz has been both to speak and to debate, but as it seems right now, we will not have agendas to go up.”
While jumbled, it’s pretty apparent that statement and the half-truth means, Cruz has been up for debate or in simple discussions, but it sounds like her schedule won’t synch up with the project. Too bad, they would have made an interesting pairing.
The title of the film is in reference to the sci-fi-ish elements to the screenplay. In von Trier’s script Planet Melancholia, an enormous planet that is evidently looming threateningly close to Earth. Since it’s touted as a psychological disaster film, we would assume that this causes some sort of global worldwide panic before any real destruction occurs (especially since the budget is only $5 million).
Von Trier also noted that there’ll be “no more happy endings” potentially hinting at something even more twisted and grim than “Antichrist” while producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen added that the film will utilize “some special effects, but nothing compared to Hollywood.”