We should have known that the trouble with getting a release date for I Love You Phillip Morris wasn't just about the gay content. Today Deadline Hollywood is reporting that the film's financier EuropaCorp has taken away distribution rights from Consolidated Pictures Group, claiming the company has not met any of their "minimum guarantee," and they feared that Consolidated could not pay the $8 million required to promote the film's scheduled July 30 release.
Consolidate founder Timothy Patrick Cavanaugh says that all is not lost, and "we plan to distribute this film." But the bad finances situation is becoming a familiar one in independent film distribution these days, as more and more films struggle to find distribution and wind up in bed with companies that aren't nearly organized enough, or even honest enough, to handle the responsibilities. There's no telling exactly what has caused Consolidated's financial malaise, but it's looking like enough for them to lose the film entirely: apparently Newmarket Film is in negotiations to pick up the film for a fall release.
As you may have been reading, I Love You Phillip Morris was picked up by Consolidated about a year ago, and has been assigned a generous handful of release dates throughout the spring; it had been scheduled for a while to open later this month, and a few days ago was pushed back to July 30. The film has already opened in Europe to relatively good reviews, but sadly, it's still totally unclear whether or not we'll ever get a look at it on these shores.
