Lionsgate and Tyler Perry team for big screen version of landmark play

Tyler Perry

By WIRE SERVICES

Story Published: Sep 3, 2009 at 3:32 PM PDT

Story Updated: Sep 3, 2009 at 3:34 PM PDT

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SANTA MONICA — Tyler Perry will adapt Ntozake Shange's Obie Award-
winning 1975 play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,'' for the big screen, it was announced Thursday.

Perry will write, direct and produce the film, which will be the first project for 34th Street Films, his new production company housed at Lionsgate, which acquired worldwide distribution rights to the project.

The film will feature "an all-star cast of female actors,'' according to Lionsgate, but casting was not announced.

Principal photography is scheduled to begin in Atlanta in November and
continue through December.

Lionsgate plans to release the film in 2010, said Joe Drake, the studio's co-chief operating officer and Motion Picture Group president.

It will be the 10th title in Lionsgate's ongoing franchise with Perry, and it is the filmmaker's first movie to be based on non-original material.

Perry said making the movie "is a dream come true for me.''

"Ntozake Shange's play is a magnificent tribute to the strength and dignity of women of color, and I think audiences of all generations will be able to recognize and embrace the experiences these women represent,'' he said. "Creatively, this movie is one of the most exciting undertakings of my career, and I'm excited to start production this November."

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