I haven´t found a real plotline description of the movie yet, but I read that it is set in the South and will be shot on a stage just like DOGVILLE.
Check that:
Zeljko Ivanek has replaced John C. Reilly in Lars von Trier´s "MANDERLAY after Reilly reportedly walked off the set in Sweden to protest the killing of a donkey for the film shoot, a spokeswoman for Danish production company Zentropa said on Thursday.
“We did not want to talk about this, but since the news leaked out in the press, we confirm that this did happen,” the spokeswoman said. "We tried very hard to use a puppet instead of a real donkey because we really needed to show a donkey being killed for the film, but when that didn’t work we approached a vet and asked him to provide us with an animal that was due to be slaughtered anyway. Because of the film, this poor donkey lived two more months than it would have otherwise."
In an interview with Agence France-Presse, Zentropa managing director and chief producer of the film Peter Aalbaek Jensen said: “I allow myself a smile faced with this ethical problem of an actor when hundreds of millions of animals are killed every day all over the world without anyone being concerned. The other actors did not have moral problems about the death of the donkey, especially since we gave it a lease on life, and he was killed with dignity, according to Swedish law and in the presence of a veterinarian. John C. Reilly was free to leave the shoot, which he did three weeks ago, and was quickly replaced by Zeljko Ivanek.”
