14/02/2011

US distribution company Magnolia Pictures has picked up North American rights to Lars von Trier’s disaster film Melancholia from TrustNordisk and Fred Cavayé’s French thriller Point Blank [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (A bout portant) from Gaumont.

Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters who drift apart as the end of the world is coming closer. Other cast members include Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier.

"As the 2012 apocalypse is upon us, it is time to prepare for a cinematic last supper,” said Tom Quinn, SVP of Magnolia Pictures. "As we head into our company's second decade, I hope this is just the first collaboration of many with the one-and-only Lars Von Trier."

Von Trier is expected to wrap Melancholia in time for Cannes, where his previous film Antichrist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile] won Gainsbourg the Best Actress Award in 2009.

Point Blank stars Gilles Lellouche as a man racing against time through Paris’ streets and subways to save his pregnant, kidnapped wife. “Cavayé and Lellouche have crafted a heart-pumping, edge-of-your-seat action thriller. Comparisons to Die Hard and Taken are well deserved,” said Quinn. Released last December in France, the thriller sold nearly 950,000 admissions.