After years of gut-wrenching “Golden Heart” films, chalk-outline experiments about “America,” a co-founded movement for pure cinema and other infamous works including his most recent, the explicit horror film Antichrist, it’s easy to forget that Lars von Trier started his feature film career in the science fiction genre. Of course, he being who he is, Von Trier’s dystopian detective story The Elements of Crime isn’t easily identifiable as sci-fi.

And neither, I’m sure, will be his next venture, a “psychological disaster” film titled Planet Melancholia. I’ll ignore the Hollywood Reporter’s reference to “Roland Emmerich territory,” especially since it follows the equally asinine description of Antichrist as being in some way related to a slasher film, and stick to comments from Von Trier and his partner at Zentropa Entertainment, Peter Aalbaek Jensen.

First: The filmmaker’s statement of “no more happy endings!” could easily be the next Von Trier t-shirt, joining the recently released “chaos reigns” design and the Van Halen-style tee.

Jensen added that hopefully no genitals will be cut off, that there will be some special effects employed, that this won’t be about an alien invasion (though there apparently will be a threat from the titular planet) and that this will be “romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way.” I’ll admit the only familiarity I have with Byron is as a character in Bride of Frankenstein. But regardless, as a longtime fan of Von Trier’s, I’m excited for this film no matter what the inspiration or comparison.

After he dedicated Antichrist to Andrei Tarkovsky, though, I’m really hoping Von Trier sets his new film on a spaceship, a la Solaris. You know Von Trier in outer space would be the greatest thing of all time.

Check out what other film bloggers are saying in response to this news after the jump:

• Ramses Flores at Collider notes how difficult it is to ever imagine what a Von Trier film will be like:
  

  Love him or hate him, Lars von Trier is one of the most interesting directors working today.  The director caused some minor controversy this year with “Antichrist”, but at least he takes chances.  Now we have news that von Trier is planning to take on the “sci-fi disaster film” genre with his next film called, “Planet Melancholia”.  I never thought that I would one day see a Lars von Trier end of the world disaster film, but I’m definitely curious. [...] The psychological aspect isn’t surprising given that it’s von Trier that we’re talking about, but I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what a sci-fi disaster film by the auteur will even look like

• Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema attempts to imagine what the film will entail:
  

  Few other details have been announced but the LiC monkeys have discovered that the plot of the film will have the entire population driven to suicide when aliens replace all television programming with Breaking the Waves running on an endless loop.

  Watch out, Roland Emmerich!

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline offers his own vision of the film:
  

  sort of like Antichrist, but with a few extra moons where the child plunging to its death might go. Yet the best part of the story may be the reporter’s invocation of Roland Emmerich as a possible genre inspiration; if ever there was a scene that demanded von Trier’s interpretation, it would almost certainly be the devastation of Randy’s Donuts.

• Katie Rich at Cinema Blend comments on the limited budget:
  

  According to THR, it’s an English-language film budgeted at $7.4 million, which means we probably won’t get to see von Trier blowing up the White House or anything. As for what he’s going for with the film, he had only one thing to say: “No more happy endings!” Yes, because von Trier’s work up to this point has been far too cheery to be taken seriously.

• Commenting at Bloody-Disgusting.com, “gutmuncher” guesses what Von Trier’s comment means:
  

  Im not big on disaster movies cause there usually not done very well or they rely to much on crappy CG, but the fact that hes hinting at “no happy endings” sounds pretty good. I love movies where no one makes it in the end or the end of human existence is at hand.

• Charlie Jane Anders at io9 discusses Von Trier in a way that surely indicates she’s not at all familiar with his work:
  

  Von Trier says his next film is the psychological disaster film Planet Melancholia, which sounds like it’ll do for the science fiction epic what Antichrist did for the slasher film — dip it in arthouse weirdness. Like Antichrist, Planet will combine handheld camerawork with spectacular cinematic imagery in the sparse “Dogme” style. Dogville, Von Trier’s film about a woman (Nicole Kidman) fleeing mobsters to a small Appalachian town, featured spare theatrical sets against an often empty background, with structures only labeled and outlined on the ground

  But it sounds like Planet Melancholia will feature actual sets, just filmed in a very stripped-down style.

• Devin Faraci at CHUD.com uses the opportunity to praise Antichrist, which has turned him on to Von Trier’s (future, at least) career:
  

  Antichrist is a great film. Capital G Great even, perhaps. I loved it, and I can’t wait to finally get a chance to write my review of it (hopefully I can catch up on Fantastic Fest reviews this weekend). I was not a huge Lars von Trier fan before - I liked some of his work, was endlessly irritated by other films of his - but Antichrist is the kind of movie that has sold me on von Trier’s peculiar genius, and has made me excited for whatever comes next. [...] like Antichrist, which is probably the most beautiful movie of 2009, Planet Melancholia will mix Dogme-style handheld camerawork with grander, more cinematic imagery. I can’t wait to see what it all turns out to be.

• Paul Tassi at JoBlo.com points out that Planet Melancholia could indeed have genital mutilation given Jensen’s wording:
  

  He “hopes” no genitals will be cut off. That doesn’t sound like a promise to me. In retrospect, I guess ANTICHRIST was nice enough to ruin sex for BOTH genders, instead of making it a one-sided affair.