Here’s the trailer for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, adapted from the the Paul Torday novel by Slumdog/127 Hours screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and directed by Chocolat/Cider House Rules director Lasse Halstrom, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt. On the surface, it’s a film about a Yemeni entrepreneur with a crazy idea to attract tourism, but AT ITS CORE™, it’s a story about having the courage to swim against the current (GET IT? LIKE SALMON.)

Is it just me, or does every film these days sound like a human interest story on local TV? SALMON FISHING in the YEMEN! HORSE survives WAR! MAN buys ZOO! INJURED DOLPHIN inspires SOLDIERS! I’m telling you, whoever figures out how to adapt Squirrel on Waterskis is going to be balls deep in cash money. (*shoos dog away from dead owner’s grave, goes back to hugging lion*)

The first time I heard Jim Carrey was starring in a movie called “I Love You Phillip Morris,” I figured, “Phillip Morris?  Why, that movie’s probably about smoking.”  As it turns out, Jim Carrey’s character in the film does love smoking. …PENISES!  HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, get it?  He likes smoking penises?  Seriously though, he’s gay.  Not sure if you caught that.

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(“HOW OLD IS THIS LION?”)

Once again, the victim in Roman Polanski’s case has officially asked for his release.

The attorney for the victim in Roman Polanski’s 32-year-old sex case is joining his lawyers’ bid to have the director sentenced in absentia to time served.
Attorney Lawrence Silver on Wednesday faxed to other lawyers in the case a motion he planned to file Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, asking that the director be sentence in absentia. On behalf of the victim, Samantha Geimer, Silver also is supporting a motion by Polanski’s lawyers urging that Polanski be sentenced to time served. [Yahoo]

An earlier appeal to have the case tried in absentia was denied last month.  From the beginning, Polanski’s victim has said she only wanted the case to be over with.  My guess is it’ll be a few more months before the lawyers decide whether to have a preliminary hearing to rule on whether to read the letter.  Elsewhere, Polanski’s next movie, Ghost Writer, which opens in February, has a poster. Say what you will about the man, he’s still a great director.  It’s like he has a gift for strongarming the camera into doing whatever he wants. *slide whistle*

[poster source = CHUD]

This is the first trailer for Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges (in full-on The Dude mode), and Hollywood’s hottest bachelor Kevin Spacey.  It looks like it could either be funny or way too cute for its own good, like my tiny, tiny penis.

Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is in search of his next big story when he encounters Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be part of an experimental U.S. military unit. According to Cassady, the New Earth Army is changing the way wars are fought. A legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. Now, the program’s founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), has gone missing and Cassady’s mission is to find him. The Men Who Stare at Goats was inspired by Jon Ronson’s non-fiction bestseller of the same name, an eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the government’s attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies. [Apple]

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(I’m not homophobic, the French subtitles are.)

After the jump, I’ve got the new trailer for I Love You Phillip Morris, in which Jim Carrey plays Steven Russell, a Texas family man who gets in a car accident, realizes he’s gay, becomes a con man to support his new habit of buying fancy clothes, goes to prison where he falls in love with Ewan McGregor, and keeps escaping and getting thrown back again.  It’s almost as if gayness was his gateway vice.  Here’s the description of the original book from Amazon:

Steven Russell, the subject of this true crime story, is a rare individual, a genius who has run afoul of the law, a prodigious intellect endowed with boundless energy, audacity and guile. Russell pulled off his first jailbreak while waving a stolen walkie-talkie at a guard as he sauntered out the front gate, and his last escape — a feat of staggering self-discipline — by faking a terminal case of AIDS over several months and forging his own death certificate. Russell also walked out of prison and into a six-figure job as a CFO of a major company-twice.

I’m intrigued by the story, but I don’t I like the direction they went with it.  Call me crazy, but it’s a little hard for me to take a movie seriously when a guy jumps face first onto concrete from three stories, then shows up in the next scene with a bandage on his nose like Wile E. Coyote.  But it’s about a gay love story, so you know the academy will be paying attention.  The new coolest thing is watching two dudes make out for uncomfortably long periods of time to prove how open-minded you are.  Or as I like to call it, Thursday.

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