It was announced today that the Jim Carrey dark comedy I Love You Phillip Morris secured domestic distribution with Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment, and will hit theaters in the U.S. on December 3, 2010.
I Love You Phillip Morris is a “fact based” independent comedy that stars Carrey as a married conman who falls for his cellmate, Ewan McGregor – and hijinks ensue!
You may remember the film struggled to secure domestic distribution, despite rave reviews at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. If not, a quick recap: The film, produced by Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, was released abroad, and grossed $17 million, but could not find a dedicated distributor for North America. The film’s initial distributor, Consolidated Pictures Group, announced three release dates over the past year (February 12, March 26, and April 30) but failed to meet each one. Besson and fellow producers Andrew Lazar and Far Shariat grew frustrated over the bad press this generated, so they pulled the picture citing breach of contract.
In the mean time, some were speculating the film’s graphic portrayals of gay sex were the cause of delays. But Liddell denies this, saying, “Audiences who know this is from the creators of Bad Santa will be thrilled that it’s as outrageous as they’d expect.” Liddell added, “It’s a true-life, daring, crazy love story with fascinating lead performances by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.”
Roadside is confident Carrey’s performance will create enough buzz to undue any PR damage the delays may have caused. Roadside Attractions co-president Howard Cohen states, “This is a film that everyone has been talking about and we’re thrilled it became available again, as we had been in hot pursuit of it at Sundance and were disappointed it was one that got away.”
If Carrey’s performance meets the hype, Roadside could be sitting pretty come award season, as they also picked up Sundance favorites Biutiful, the drama that won Javier Bardem Best Actor at Cannes, and Winter’s Bone, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
So, after all the delays – are you still interested in I Love You Phillip Morris?