Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Von Trier/Scorsese Project 'The Five Obstructions' (Cannes 2011)

4:43 AM PDT 5/19/2011 by Scott Roxborough

The deal was signed before Von Trier’s infamous Nazi comments in Cannes.

CANNES – In one of the worst cases of bad-timing in this year’s Cannes, Magnolia Pictures and Australian distributor Madman pre-bought rights to Lars Von Trier’s new film, a documentary collaboration with Martin Scorsese called The Five Obstructions: Scorsese vs Trier. Magnolia took North American rights, Madman rights for Australia/New Zealand from TrustNordisk.Magnolia reportedly signed the deal for Five Obstructions at 4 am on Tuesday, just hours before Lars Von Trier’s notorious Cannes press conference for his latest film, Melancholia, in which he called himself a Nazi and said he “sympathized with Hitler a little bit.” Magnolia also has domestic rights to Melancholia.