BERLIN — Magnolia Pictures has picked up the North American distribution rights to Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia in a seven-figure deal with Trust Nordisk.
The rights were pre-bought as the film is still in post-production.
The production’s cast includes Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard and Udo Kier.
Dunst and Gainsbourg play sisters whose lives are drifting apart as, according to the companies, “the universe spectacularly unravels” in what Von Trier has described as “a beautiful movie about the end of the world.”
“As the 2012 apocalypse is upon us, it is time to prepare for a cinematic last supper: Lars Von Trier’s awe-inspiring Melancholia,” crowed Tom Quinn, SVP of Magnolia in a statement. “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.”
The deal was negotiated by Qiuinn and Magnolia’s VP of Acquisitions Dori Begley with Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Susan Wendt of Trust Nordisk.
Magnolia has been very aggressive and very busy in this still relatively new year. The company picked up two movies at the Sundance Film Festival — the Rob Lowe–Jeremy Piven thriller I Melt With You and Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times (which is acquired with Participant Media) –as well as the documentary Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja prior to the Berlin Film Festival.
Melancholia is the company’s second pick-up at Berlin following French thriller Point Blank.
