Uma Thurman has joined the increasingly stellar cast of Lars von Trier's supposedly pornographic drama Nymphomaniac, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Kill Bill actor joins Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Stacy Martin, Connie Nielsen and Christian Slater on the Danish arch-provocateur's new film, which is currently shooting in and around Cologne, Germany. Von Trier is planning "hardcore" and "softcore" versions, the former of which will apparently feature genuine sex scenes.

Thurman's role is at this stage unclear, but it will be the first time she has starred in a film for the director of Dogville, Melancholia and Antichrist. Gainsbourg stars as Joe (sic), a middle-aged self-described nymphomaniac who reveals her entire sexual history to an older bachelor (Skarsgård) after he finds her beaten and bruised in an alley. Slater is to play Joe's father, whom she only sees in flashbacks.

Nymphomaniac is being billed as the most controversial project yet in a career that has not been short on contentious episodes. Von Trier's producing partner, Peter Aalbæk Jensen, raised eyebrows last year when he told the Guardian, in reference to Nymphomaniac: "Lars wants to see the sexual arousement (sic) of a girl [on screen]."

Nymphomaniac is due for release some time in 2013 after a likely premiere at the Cannes film festival.