The long-awaited U.S. premiere of the
gay-themed film I Love You Phillip Morris starring Jim Carrey
and Ewan McGregor inched closer Thursday with the release of its
official trailer.
In the film, now scheduled to open on
December 3 in the United States and Canada, Carrey and McGregor star
as a pair of star-crossed lovers.
“Yup, I'm gay,” Carrey's character
Steven Russell says in the trailer. “Have been as long as I can
remember. Of course it was a delicate situation, so I'd have to find
the right way to break it to Debbie.”
“It didn't take me long to realize
that being gay is really expensive,” he adds. “So I became a con
man.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The movie premiered at the 2009
Sundance Film Festival in Utah. It has already been released in
major markets around the globe and has reached DVD in some regions.
But its U.S. premiere has been postponed four times since February.
Roadside Attractions announced in
August that it had taken over distribution of the film after
EuropaCorp, the French movie studio that owns the film, took
Consolidated Pictures Group to court. EuropaCorp claims Consolidated
has not paid the agreed upon $3 million advance for the film.
The film is based on the true story of
Steven Russell (played by Carrey, Liar Liar) and his
improbable transformation from small-town businessman, father and
former cop to gay white-collar criminal and ingenious jailbreaker.
While in prison, Russell falls in love with his cellmate Phillip
Morris (played by McGregor, Star Wars).
A brief 1-minute clip of the movie
released on the Internet in June shows the pair in a romantic
jailhouse embrace. McGregor says “Enough romance, let's fuck” as
he heads down on Carrey. The clip was available to view on various
websites, but EuropaCorp managed to take it down quickly.