Despite a reputation that director Lars Von Trier puts his leading ladies through hell during production (Björk reportedly swore off acting after Dancer in the Dark), he continues to work with some of cinema's finest: Emily Watson, Nicole Kidman, Bryce Dallas Howard, and most recently, Charlotte Gainsbourg.   Von Trier was nearly able to cross Penélope Cruz off of his list for the upcoming sci-fi disaster flick Melancholia, but he ultimately lost out to Jack Sparrow when she signed on for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides instead.

Now Deadline reports that the Dane may have found a respectable replacement in Mary Jane Watson herself, Kirsten Dunst.  If the young actress signs on, she'll join Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, Alexander Skarsgaard, Stellan Skarsgaard and Udo Kier for a summer shoot in Sweden.  Dunst will soon be seen alongside Jim Sturges (Across the Universe) in Upside Down, a film whose plot synopsis I adore, so I'll include it after the jump.

Unfortunately, not much is known about Melancholia, other than its ties with the genres disaster and science fiction.  Although, Von Trier's business partner Peter Aalbaek Jensen promises the film will be "romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way," if that means anything to you.

The plot synopsis for Upside Down, on the other hand, is a detailed (if still enigmatic) thing of beauty:

Look up towards the sky and rub your eyes because you won't believe what you see: cities, forests, and oceans with their own inverted gravity, only an arm's length away, yet completely unreachable. Take a leap over to this alternate reality, two worlds - one above, one below‐ facing each other, and you'll land in the extraordinary world of Upside Down, the new ground‐breaking film of Juan Solanas, the director of the innovative Cannes and César‐prized short film The Man Without A Head and heartbreaking 2005 Cannes film Nordeste.

Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach . . . a girl named Eve. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown‐up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back . . . Not even the law or science!

Nothing could stop me from seeing this film.  Not even the law or science!