As what must be the 80th or 81st Tyler Perry movie comes out this week, the world will soon get to see what Tyler Perry can do when he’s adapting someone else’s work. Or, I suppose the most interesting factor will be to see what he can do when he doesn’t get to cross-dress in a film.
Lionsgate has hired the filmmaker to write/direct/produce/not-cross-dress-in an adaptation of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” according to Variety.
The Obie award-winning play, written by Ntozake Shange, is an episodic group of several poems told by women who are known only by a color (i.e. “Lady in Yellow”) that deal with heavy issues like rape and abortion facing the African American female population.
Perry is known for creating movies that resonate with that audience, so it’s a natural choice to hire him for a project like this, although I’m wondering whether he’ll be able to calm down enough to give it the weight that it deserves. Shange is a well-respected poet and playwright, so it would be a shame to see her work watered down in the sort of TBS way that Perry is more than capable of doing.
It’s scheduled to shoot in November, meaning Perry barely has any time at all to adapt the thing and add in the character “Lady in Drag” who looks eerily like Grandmama wearing a Big Mama costume. Wait a minute – shouldn’t Perry get a part in the forthcoming Big Mama’s House 3? Make the call, Fox!
What do you think?