Penelope Cruz Reported as Lead for Lars von Trier's Melancholia
Posted 02.09.10 by Rich Z
Penelope Cruz is a hot commodity right now, having snagged Oscar nominations two years in a row (she won last year for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and is in the running this year for Nine). With high demand comes the potential for greater independence, and Cruz has chosen her projects carefully of late. Now, Cruz may make a move that would certainly demonstrate she is in control of her career. The Playlist writes that Cruz may get on board the next movie from Danish provocateur Lars von Trier.
The 53-year-old director thrives on controversy, having crafted movies that feature explicit sex and violence, misogyny, and bitter criticisms of the United States in particular. Von Trier was one of several Danish directors who helped draft "Dogme 95," a kind of anti-Hollywood manifesto.
He won major honors at the Cannes Film Festival with Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the Dark. His last effort, the brutally graphic horror-drama Antichrist, won Charlotte Gainsbourg a Best Actress award at last year's Cannes Festival, but the arguably excessive sexual violence polarized audiences.
Von Trier described his upcoming project, Melancholia, as a psychological disaster movie, and he also said that he had Cruz in mind for it ahead of time. He also said there will be "no more happy endings." That sounds like a very typical, double-edged Von Trier comment: It could be an ironic reference to his own movies, which tend to end with everybody in agonizing pain, or it could be a jab at Hollywood disaster movies, which always resolve everything nicely and happily by the closing credits.
On that note, the movie's budget is a fairly small $5 million, and one of the movie's producers said the project will feature "some special effects, but nothing compared to Hollywood." Melancholia should go into production later this year, and Von Trier is shooting for entry into the 2011 Cannes Festival.