In an announcement of Magnolia’s acquisition of Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia, which the director has described as “a beautiful movie about the end of the world,” a senior exec said something very strange. In an official release, senior Magnolia vp Tom Quinn declares that “as the 2012 apocalypse is upon us, it is time to prepare for a cinematic last supper.”

What apocalypse is this? The Biblical nut end-of-days version? Or the general apocalypse signified by the radical political right? Is Quinn referring to the presidential campaign of Sarah Stillson? Does he see frogs falling from the sky? What film executive has ever alluded to a right-wing wackjob fantasy in order to hype a film?

There is only one apocalypse in this instance, and that is the creative one that has been afflicting Von Trier for the last two or three years. It is/was apparently rooted in the same psychological depression that resulted in Antichrist, easily the most ludicrous film of his career.

The not-yet-completed Melancholia costars Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Alexander Skarsgard, Stellan Skarsgard and Udo Kier. The Wiki page says it “deals with a variety of people trying to cope with the death of the planet as a large foreign body threatens a deadly collision.” Melancholia will most likely play at next May’s Cannes Film Festival.