This is interesting: Variety reports that I Love You Phillip Morris, a comedy in which Jim Carrey plays Ewan McGregor’s boyfriend which debuted at Sundance and shocked people who get shocked easily by leaving without a distribution deal, has been picked up by Consolidated Pictures Group in advance of its premiere in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes.

Consolidated’s Randall Miller and Jody Savin had an indie hit last year with the Miller-directed Bottle Shock, another title that premiered at Sundance but didn’t land an ideal offer there. According to a profile in Screen, after self-distributing Miller’s film the duo teamed up with Bottle Shock releasing partner Freestyle Films as well as the company formerly known as Leonidas films and, armed with equity financing, sought “to do for other peoples films what we did for Bottle Shock.”

Of course, some people might say that a Jim Carrey comedy shouldn’t need the lo-fi, grassroots treatment that netted Bottle Shock a whopping $4 million at the domestic box office. But those people probably haven’t heard that the sky is falling, we’re all going to die, and that the only recourse is to take refuge under new models and to set expectation bars low enough that they can be easily cleared.

Move over Milk. I Love You Phillip Morris does the gay rights movement one better, using in-your-face comedy and mainstream casting to defuse whatever anxiety the Heartland might have with guy-guy relationships — the irony being that this outrageous conman comedy from Bad Santa scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa was originally supposed to be directed by none other than Gus Van Sant. When Van Sant dropped out, the writers stepped in to shoot their own screenplay, resulting in a first-time film that feels more polished and professional than 90% of the studio comedies in theaters these days.

It helps that Ficarra and Requa went in with a proper script, an ingredient too frequently missing in Judd Apatow and Adam McKay’s improv-happy method, where a cocktail napkin sketch of a plot seems to be all the team needs. No doubt Ficarra and Requa allowed their leads, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, a certain flexibility in interpreting their parts, but it’s refreshing to find a comedy that cuts together, where one scene sets up the next and ideas planted early in the film pay off for bigger laughs later on. The final gag, which shows an unmistakably phallic-shaped cloud, completes a joke set up in first-act flashbacks to Steven Jay Russell’s childhood.

…Read more

I Love You Phillip Morris is based on the true story about a Texas policeman named Steve Russell, and the relationship he falls into with fellow inmate Phillip Morris. Its Sundance premiere attracted a lot of attention because of the on-screen relationship between Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor who play Steve and Phillip, respectively.

Producers Andrew Lazar and Luc Besson, directors Glenn Ficarra and John Renqua, and stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor spoke at a press conference at Sundance, and discussed how Besson and Carrey met on the set of Ace Ventura, why the criminal who inspired the story will never see it, and the evolution of gay relationships on screen.

…Read more

Who would you rather hear sing Etta James’ signature tunes, the real deal or Beyonce Knowles? If you prefer the latter, then you’ll want to see Cadillac Records and even buy the film’s soundtrack, both of which feature Beyonce performing a few of James’ songs, including a nearly spot-on copy of “At Last” (listen to it here). Other actors in the film (and on the soundtrack) who do their own singing while portraying legendary music artists include Jeffrey Wright (as Muddy Waters), Mos Def (Chuck Berry) and Columbus Short (Little Walter).

It’s a strange idea to pay tribute to a singer with a biopic or ensemble music historical and then replace that singer’s voice with another, more amateur vocalist. Yet Hollywood does it all the time and, surprisingly, the new performances usually turn out pretty good. Just listen to the following nine actors and actresses who managed to do justice to the artist they were portraying.
…Read more

Money makes the world go round, and it also drives the plot most of the films of Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire, as you can guess by the title, is no different. It greases the wheels of Boyle’s plots, and forces characters to do things they wouldn’t otherwise even consider. Unfortunately cash doesn’t really play a part in 28 Days Later or Sunshine, probably because zombies don’t really shop that often, and the Sun doesn’t take credit cards, but every one of his other films has a pile of money at the heart of the story. …Read more

• Scott Rudin is taking his name off Stephen Daldry’s The Reader after losing his heavyweight battle with Harvey Weinstein regarding the film’s release schedule. Now that Rudin has left the project, though, can we expect the producer to push his Revolutionary Road even harder for the Oscar? And will Kate Winslet be treated like a poor child of divorce who’s made to pick one parent over the other?
• Confirming little more than what the movie blogs have been rumoring all week, Variety reports that super hot right now Josh Brolin is in talks to play the DC Comics gunslinger Jonah Hex. Perhaps with everyone respecting comic book characters so much these days this role will be the one that Brolin finally gets an Oscar nomination for.
• I guess when your film stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, you can get just any old actress to play the lead female part. But picking the most boring Lost character ever (well, the actress who plays her, anyway) to costar in Grant Heslov’s Men Who Stare at Goats seems a bit counterproductive.
• Continuing the trend of making uncomfortable topics funny, Seth Rogen is producing and will co-star in a comedy about cancer from an autobiographical script by HBO producer Will Reiser.
• Despite another bunch of box office contenders entering the multiplexes this weekend, including the heavily starred yet topically cursed Body of Lies, the bets are that Beverly Hills Chihuahua will stay on top for a second round.

• Not content to let IFC walk off the Croisette as the big buying ballers of Cannes 2008, Sony Pictures Classics set a number of deals in the last days of the fest, including distribution pacts for the Israeli animated doc Waltz With Bashir, Lorna’s Silence by the Dardenne brothers, and James Toback’s Tyson.
• Meanwhile, the people at Magnolia have all but resigned themselves to distributing What Just Happened?, the Barry Levinson Cannes closer which they produced through 2929 Entertainment, but have been attempting to unload on another distributor since Sundance.
• Ewan McGregor will play Gore Vidal’s dad/Amelia Earhart’s lover in Amelia, a biopic set to star Hillary Swank as the famous missing aviatrix.
• Blah blah blah Indiana Jones, blah blah blah $311 million worldwide.

Over the weekend, I watched the trailer for Cassandra’s Dream, Woody Allen’s upcoming London-set crime drama, and promptly forgot about it. Probably not a good sign, right? I’m actually fascinated by Woody Allen late-career turn towards class-passing morality plays set in Britain, but this trailer makes Cassandra out to be a muddle of Match Point and generic BBC kitchen sink. I bet there’s some measure of intentional misdirection going on here–after all, Woody never reveals much about his films before they’re seen. Take a look for yourself above.