Tyler Perry to write and direct a feature film version of "For Colored Girls"

he's that stereotypical. if its not you its someone you know. But we do need more women in the business.

SAVING THE WORLD. ONE MILE AT A TIME.

Shange's For Colored GirlsWho Have Considered Sucidie When The Rainbow Is Enuf  preferably Kasi Lemmons.  I would pick Suzanne De Passe as the producer. Or heck Jasmine Guy would had been just fine as the director since she's doing the stage adaption. 

It is completely ironic he wants to direct this as a film adaption. (puffing) after writing films centering African-American womyn as "victims" of x, y and z. 

Madea Goes To Jail wasn't the best film he has made.  

I hope for him to back up his directing skillz  on this infamous African-American play he better have phenonmenal African-American womyn to back this film up. 

 How will black female filmmakers ever become bankable assets themselves, if they're routinely overlooked in favor of men?

 My Answer: When womyn stop supporting their work.

Thanks for the news, Sarah warn.  

 Tyler Perry has proven himself to be quite bankable and at the end of the day for an major studio like Lionsgate that is all that matters. $!!

-I speak in random thoughts

I disagree with Tyler Perry adapting this play.

Another female movie (as well as music videos) director is Sanaa Hamri. She directed the movie "Something New". :)

Thanks for the information, Sarah Warn.

"For Colored Girls — a series of searing poems telling stories of love, abandonment, domestic abuse and other issues faced by black women — dismantles exactly the kind of stereotypes Perry has spent his career promoting."

Well the movie hasn't been made yet  so I'm not doubting that this will have Perry's signature "Pitiful Black Woman" trademark.

The other night I was watching a Tyler Perry movie:  Diary Of A Mad Black Woman.  Granted I had missed a significant portion when I first caught the movie.  Originally I came in on the part where the ridiculously successful cheating scoundrel of a husband had the heart attack and Kimberly Elyse (who played the long suffering wife) returns to care for him after the woman he left her for leaves him.  Basically though despite caring for him she figuratively kicks his butt.  This lead me to think: "Wow Perry really has our back and empowers us"  Pffftt.

The the other night I watched the movie from the beginning and when I saw what was going on I thought: This guy is supppsed to be a prominent Atlanta attorney and he's doing this crazy sh*t?  I lived with an attorney and what Perry portrayed was beyond unbelievable.

And I did not like "Why Did I Get Married"either so I am left to ponder who made Tyler Perry the contemporary spokes person for African American women?

I am skeptical that this vehicle will possess the edge that poet Nikki Giovannni imbued into her work.

It will be revisionist in the sense that Perry will steal credit.

It will be promoted as: Tyler Perry presents: For Colored Girls..Blah Blah Puke.

Technology Will Lead To The Demise Of Civilization As We Know It. 

I've been mad about this since it was announced on Playbill.com on Friday. Passed the info along to friends who were equally upset. Topic of discussion for some friends and I at dinner on Sat: the complete and utter wrongness of him doing this film. This is a piece of work that many, many women have said changed their lives, made them wanna work in the arts to bring the stories of women of color to the forefront (myself included). To have Tyler Perry, a man, adapt and direct this is slap in the face. It's not enough that women's stories have been interpreted by men for years, but now to take one of the most influential pieces of work created BY a woman of color FOR women of color and have it been presented by Tyler Perry is an outrage. I don't care that he was raised by an African American woman and spent many hours in African American beauty shops listening to African American women recount their lives as he was growing up. NOTHING qualifies him to tell this story. Please someone tell me what Tyler Perry can tell me about what's it's like to be an African American woman? His time and experience as African American woman ends when he takes off his ridiculous Medea costume (which don't get me started on my anger in the whole Madea, Big Mamma's House, Norbit etc portrayal of older and/or full figured women). Hiring him to do this shows a complete disrepect for the piece and for the people that it represents. The majority of Tyler Perry's work tends to be completely paternalistic in nature, all this woman needs is a good man in her life and everything is OK. Even the best of his work, Why Did I Get Married?, helps in it's own way to maintain that theme. I doubt he'll interpret the piece in the appropriate manner. Furthermore, it's a choreopoem, an abstract piece that really only works as such. To adapt it for film would completely change the structure and character of it. The only time it was filmed was as a stage piece.  If he wanted to have a hand in this, why not only serve as a producer! Give a African American woman a chance to adapt and direct! Whoopi Goldberg was working hard to do a revival of this on stage staring India Arie, but it fell through due to funding. Why not swing your massive wallet towards that, Tyler Perry?! It's completely and totally disrepectful and arrogant for him to do this. The fact that this was greenlit sheds light on the lack of thought process and, even more, adaquate representation at studios. There was just a story the other week about the complete lack of diversity in film directors at major studios. I'm so utterly sick and tired of everyone else being allowed and encouraged to tell my story, in specificity, but moreover the stories of community which they cannot understand the complete ins and outs of (and that extends to all: people of color, women, LGBT, etc). And yes, I understand some stories are universal, are rooted in the human experience, come from the heart, etc. BUT this is not one of them! THIS STORY is rooted in the African American Female experience!  Sigh, Rant over, Disagree if you want. 

tyler perry has done so much for black folk in the arts, even if it may be unpopular on this site to say so.  his stage plays and the movie versions of them aren't stereotypical because of the way they are done.  you have to watch them and the message and point of it all practically smacks you in the face.  and watching madea on screen is like watching my grandmother and my great aunts.  at times it's even a little creepy.

i don't know anything about this play that he's slated to make into a movie.  i gather it would go over easier if a female was doing the directing.  but, tyler perry has done a good job of showing the struggles that black women face (i mean look at any number of his plays or movies) and how they get through...even if sometimes the stories have fairy tale endings.   so perhaps instead of griping that the man was asked to direct, let's all be happy that the stories of black women are coming to light like this at all...and especially since it's a black person in charge of the production.  

tyler perry has such a huge fan base, white women included, that with his name on the project....people will show up to see this movie who other wise wouldn't because it's a "black film".

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~I am bisexual.  You are confused.~

on the one hand I can understand the frustration of having a man do this and not a woman. I'm not really a fan of Tyler Perry, I like some of his stuff but not crazy about it. I do feel like if you have seen one Tyler Perry movie you may have seen them all. On the other hand I will wait and see if he does a good job or not.

"Come On Then Get These Good Done Debbies"

Wait.....what happened to Nzingha Stewart???? Did Lionsgate give her the boot? Wow. She was supposed to direct her adapted version of For Colored Girls.

I'm just going to leave my comment at that.

" True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united" ~ Wilhelm von Humbolt

i love his movies and i know alot of elderly women like that my friends grandmothers and my grandmother have so many of those characteristics. And i recall him stating madea was based on his grandmother loosely. As for the fact about gabriel union in the daddys little girl story line women can be lonely career women he didnt bring across the screen the delusion that all women are like that but in all honesty this day in age both sexes can go through that whether the loneliness is being filled by a person or getting a break from work(lets face it whos not a total bitch after working over 60 plus hours a week) she didnt particulary come off as lonely to me just out of the loop on the dating game and her friends blind dates werent helping the situation (which im sure plenty of people can relate to) face it all the women you named are good actresses but they come with big numbers and im sure mr. perry would like to have them in his movies but cant afford them just yet and he does put the names of a lot of talent white and black male and female actresses names out there through his plays and breaks the stereotype that white people cant sing or dance i might add. i dont think tyler perry make women especially black women look pitiful in his movies he shows how women as well as men can be weak and how they overcome it. he is showing the ugliness of relationships and life that do really happen whether spousal abuse, teen pregnancy, prostitution, drugs, etc and cushioning it with a bit of comedy. im not black but that doesnt mean those things aren't universal ive known and am related to people like this as well as went through an abusive relationship, this is life. if he was not a man there would be no argument here so that shows to me that its not his directing or acting ability thats on discussion its his sex. its not his fault that a woman didnt direct the film like jasmine guy or whoever being that he has his own productions it was easier for him and he picked up the movie that would overwise probably would have been discarded until years later if that   

"Hands upon my back again.
Survival is my only friend.
Terrified of what may come.
Remember I will always love you,
Even as I claw your fucking throat away.
But it will end no other way"

Tyler Perry's moral-dramedies are debatably good for a laugh or two, but while Black audiences may get the complexities of the jokes and characters, the mass-market at which his films are directed are only getting superficialities in the forms of sassy mammies and wounded, desperate Black women.

His films only speak to Black communities because there's not much else out there to consume. Which is sad, because the ostensible heterosexism and heavy-handed preaching about how to heal Black relationships and families only further entrench the deeper issues at hand.

While I take offense at the fact that it seems that no Black women will have a major hand behind the scenes of this film, I take greater offense at the fact that the go-to Black voice, Perry's, is that of someone who romanticizes Black womanhood right back into subordination.

Perry may have grown up surrounded by women, and his regard for them may be sincere, but he has yet to prove that he can translate that reverence onto the stage and screen.

Thus, I do not support his perspective, his art, or his abuse of Black womanhood. And neither should you.

Instead, let Nina Simone sing to you about "Four Women."

why would anyone think Beyonce is a great "actress" ?

I know that at the end of the day it's all about the money and Tyler Perry is bankable. But what about letting women tell women's stories? What happened to having integrity in films? No matter which way you slice it, and no matter what race they are, men can not tell women's story because they haven't lived as women. Period. I definitely won't be seeing this.

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Visit my favorite site www.thehungersite.com and click the big yellow button to help end world hunger. It's free to click- & c'mon it's a shiny yellow button!

I like Tyler Perry and am a fan of his, but to direct For Colored Girls, please no!  I actually saw the play less than a month ago, and it was overwhelming!  I enjoyed it from the beginning to end.  It showed a lot of strength in the play.  I have the distinct feeling if Perry gets ahold of it, he would deminish the quality and strength of these women's voices.  I'm so not for that pairing at all! 

2 Tears in a Bucket...F*#k it!!!

I heard about this. And because i'm ADD right now i'm not gonna re-read the entire post, but I did notice someone said something about Beyonce above, and for the love of Gawd PLEASE let him have more sense than to cast Beyonce's non-actin ass in this movie. At least give us that much. I'm gonna hold out hope that he's not gonna take this movie and totally misinterpret the shit and make it a bunch of bitchy shoutin black women that end in the electric slide.

-visions of Madea as lady in blue-

o_0

please. 
just ... No!!!

"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss

So I totally know where this discussion has headed so I am just going to keep my two cents to myself this time.

As long as he does not screw it up I don't care. People fail to realize you have to learn how to take baby steps before you can run. You are not guaranteed a hole in one or a homerun your first try, give the man some credit no matter his history.

Would you complain if no one did it and ask why has no one thought about us...complain complain complain! Don't bite the hand that feeds you : )

*drops mic*

Matt's world you just live in it!

So I totally know where this discussion has headed so I am just going to keep my two cents to myself this time.

As long as he does not screw it up I don't care. People fail to realize you have to learn how to take baby steps before you can run. You are not guaranteed a hole in one or a homerun your first try, give the man some credit no matter his history.

Would you complain if no one did it and ask why has no one thought about us...complain complain complain! Don't bite the hand that feeds you : )

*drops mic*

Matt's world you just live in it!

Although I would love to have a women of color in control of this movie, I don't really care who does it, as long as they are true to the characters and their stories. I have loved this play since I was really young. It has meant a lot to me in various stages of my life for different reasons.

I don't like the idea of Tyler Perry directing this project based on his past work. To say "give him a chance" is like giving the guy at work who has repeatedly messed up the sales report and cost the company millions another chance. At what point do you say enough is enough?

I won't go into the stereotypes and all that in TPs movies. I just feel like his work is better left to the stage and not the screen. Besides all that, my main issue is that all of his female characters are the same. All the storylines are the same. I get the dark side of his "comedies" and all that. I see the struggles his characters go through. But at the end of the day, their general stories are the same. I won't list them here, because this post is already long enough. Plus if you have ever seen more than one TP movie, then you know what I am talking about. I pointed this out to a family member of mine who loves (and owns) all of TPs work. After much consideration and reviewing the material, they agreed with me. The women  generally have the same victimized, need a good (blue collar) man to pick them back up story lines. It is tired. He needs to come up with some new material...but then again why would he do that when the same tired formula is making him millions. 

I appreciate Tyler Perry for getting black faces back into the mainstream. And for getting African American actors starring roles, but for all that is good in this world do NOT let this man touch this play. Unless he is going to seriously change his directing/writing style.