Roadside Picks Up 'I Love You, Phillip Morris'

Offhandedly, we mentioned last weekend that Jim Carrey's I Love You, Phillip Morris would never be released in the US. Two reasons for that, really. The first is because the film was shot back in mid-2008 and it has already come and gone all over the world. An ancillary part of the first reason is that the movie didn't make a lot of noise overseas, so why would a US distributor bend over backwards for it?

The second reason, a bigger factor, is that the film was embroiled in a lawsuit involving the distributors that had the film slotted for April of this year and then moved it to June. Suddenly, a movie that sat around for a while, got dropped from its initial Valentine's Day opening before the two other delays, was in danger of never making it to theaters in this country. But the lawsuit's over, and the film has a new distributor, the suddenly active Roadside Attractions. Not exactly Fox or Warners, but anything's better than nothing at this point. And for Roadside, it's just whatever distribution and possible P & A fees it will incur; the production cost - an estimated $60 million - is someone else's problem.

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French Trailer for 'I Love You Phillip Morris'

It looked grim for I Love You Phillip Morris a couple of months ago. Distributors didn't want to go near it and it looked like the dark comedy with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor was bound for the cut-out bin.

Then suddenly, Consolidated Pictures Group threw down a few million dollars to distribute the film in the U.S., lining it up for a February 2010 release. A couple of weeks ago, there was a new poster for its international run, which starts in September, and now there's a second French trailer for the unlikely love story. At first, it takes a little getting used to if you don't speak French, but now that I've seen the whole trailer that way, I think I'd be up to watch the whole movie dubbed in the language of love. Something about it just fits = "Je t'aime, Phillip Morris! Je t'aime!"

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New Poster for 'I Love You Phillip Morris'

Look at this poster, look how it shines for you and everything you do. It is all...yellow.

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in the dark comedy I Love You Phillip Morris, which has had trouble getting American distribution but will finally be released next February. In the film, Steven (Carrey) is tired of leading a double life, so he leaves his family and embraces his homosexuality. Soon after, he discovers that flamboyance is expensive, so he becomes a con man, gets caught, and serves time with Phillip Morris (McGregor). The love he feels for Phillip is so strong that Steven breaks out of the joint several times to be close to the man he loves, and commits several other crimes along the way, too. The movie is from the guys who wrote Bad Santa, so the tone of the movie absolutely fits what they do.

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Gay Prison Comedy 'Phillip Morris' Finds Distributor

It's been sitting on the shelf for a while, and finally the Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor film, I Love You, Phillip Morris, will be released in the U.S. next Valentine's Day. The movie, written and directed by Bad Santa duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, stars Carrey as a married conman who falls in love with his cellmate (McGregor), and keeps breaking out of prison to be with the man he loves. It premiered at Sundance and will be shown at Canes this week but had never attracted much attention from distributors in the American market. In fact, about six weeks ago, there was a strong possibility that it would never be released theatrically in the states, despite a few run in the European markets. Now Consolidated Pictures Group has picked up the rights for domestic distribution, a mid-seven-figure deal with the film's backers at EuropaCorp. Part of the delay could be related to a rather ho-hum response at Sundance, which is a deal-making hotbed when the movies seem to hit all the right notes.

Gay Prison Comedy 'I Love You Phillip Morris' Might Go Directly to DVD

A film in which Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor play gay lovers may not make it to American theaters because of its frank depictions of gay sex. Times of London reports that I Love You Phillip Morris is facing a huge uphill battle to find U.S. distributors despite the marquee names attached.

Lewis Tice, a publicity agent at TLA releasing, told the paper, “The depiction of the sexual activity was far more than I’ve ever seen in a mainstream film with a mainstream celebrity. There’s a graphic sex scene in the first 10 minutes that I was surprised to see.” In the film, which premiered at Sundance in January, Carrey plays a married policeman who comes out of the closet and then enters a life of crime to fund his new lifestyle. After he's arrested, Carrey falls in love with Phillip Morris, played by McGregor.

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