Just saw this article over on Slashfilm regarding the inability to find American distribution for Jim Carrey’s latest offering, I Love You, Phillip Morris, in which Carrey plays a man who falls in love with his male cell mate, played by Ewan McGregor.
Lots of obvious questions arise from such a situation, such as why a Jim Carrey/Ewan McGregor movie can’t get distribution, why a movie well-received at Sundance can’t get distribution, why the movie WILL get a theatrical release in the UK and not here, etc.
Supposedly in the very first 10 minutes of the movie, there is a “graphic gay sex scene”. Comparisons were drawn in the article with other gay entries, Brokeback Mountain and Milk. While I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, I have seen Milk and I can say that while it did contain gay love scenes, I wouldn’t categorize them as “graphic.” To me, “graphic” implies explicit or overt sex (as in at least one of the performers is in frame from head to toe) and likely with genitalia exposure.
This may or may not have anything to do with the movie’s lacking distribution, no one’s really saying anything. It could just be that the combination of the subject and a no-longer-so-big star aren’t enough for a distributor to take a chance on it. Jim Carrey’s last movie, Yes Man, was a modest success at most, with a $97mil US box office. In a bold (possibly desperate) move, Carrey did the movie for free, taking his paycheck from back-end points (36.2% of the profit, which could be anywhere from a mere $2mil to $10mil). A lot of people said Carrey “returned to what made him popular”, but it seems it was too little too late.
Like I said, no one’s giving details on the hows and whys, there’s very little to even speculate on. I just thought it was an interesting thing to point out.