As we’ve already discussed this morning, Lars von Trier is something of a provocateur, a trickster. So, when he told the Cannes press conference that followed the first screening of his latest picture, the apocalyptic “Melancholia,” that “My next film, and Kirsten [Dunst] demanded it, will be porn. That’s how women are. Really hard core. That’s what I’m writing now,” while sat next to the ashen-faced “Spider-Man” star, you’ll forgive us for not taking him too seriously. Except, as it turns out, he may not have been joking.
Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeff Wells just reported on Twitter that omnipresent Swedish actor, and von Trier veteran, Stellan Skarsgård, has said that von Trier “was being sincere when he said his next film would be a porno.” And, if you recall, last we heard from the director about his next possible project, the director said that it would be called “The Nymphomaniac,” and revolve around “a woman’s erotic birth, a woman who discovers her eroticism,” which seems to suggest that Skarsgård is speaking the truth.
Of course, it’s not the first time that von Trier’s gone to more hardcore waters — as far back as “The Idiots,” the director’s shown actual penetration in a few of his films, with his last picture, “Antichrist,” using pornographic actors to double for Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in one copulation scene. So a full on sex-fest wouldn’t exactly be a stretch for the director, and it’s exactly the kind of provocative move we’d expect from him. So long’s as it’s less crushingly boring than Michael Winterbottom‘s “9 Songs,” we don’t really mind.
Of course, don’t expect the kind of A-list actress that von Trier’s attracted recently to be on board: Wells says that Skarsgård added that Dunst wouldn’t be involved on the project. Of course, the “Thor” actor doesn’t seem to have ruled out his involvement yet, and if von Trier’s interested, we’ve got a hard-drive full of “Mamma Mia!” slash fiction that he’s welcome to use as inspiration. We mean, uh… yeah… not really… If the project is indeed “The Nymphomaniac,” and it does indeed come next for the director, it’ll likely get going sometime before von Trier teams up with Martin Scorsese for “The Five Obstructions” in mid-2012, which incidentally was just picked up today for U.S. distribution by Magnolia, von Trier’s go-to U.S. home these days.
