Lars Von Trier is describing his new film Melancholia as "a beautiful movie about the end of the world," and it's hard to imagine what could make fans of the Dogville and Antichrist director happier to hear. The famously iconoclastic von Trier is back once again to merge the beautiful and the obscene and the terrifying into one captivating film, and this time it's going to be what he's described as a disaster movie, a von Trier take on what happens when a planet crashes into Earth. Namely it seems to be distracting Kirsten Dunst from an unhappy new marriage, but I'm sure it has other consequences too.

If you're curious about how this is going to work, you can at least get an idea thanks to the first trailer, which premiered today at the film's official site. It starts off like a particularly well-photographed perfume ad set at a wedding but soon segues into all kinds of strangeness, like that mysterious planet that's been hiding behind the sun, a naked woman lounging in brilliant green grass, and maybe strangest of all, the presence of Kiefer Sutherland in a Lars Von Trier film .He's just one part of a remarkable cast that also includes Antichrist veteran Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgard, Alexander Skarsgard, Udo Kier and Brady Corbet. No, I have no idea what will happen to them all when the planets collide, or even if Von Trier will show us the explosion rather than punish us for wanting to see it. But come on-- watching this trailer, aren't you dying to find out one way or another?

Odd are Melancholia will show up at Cannes next month, so keep an ear to the ground for the befuddled reviews on that one quite soon.