Watch Out, Madea! Tyler Perry Takes on For Colored Girls Film

What do the Madea films and Ntozake Shange’s groundbreaking 1976 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf have in common? If you said, “Tyler Perry,” you are correct.

Perry, the mastermind behind a franchise of flicks, including the upcoming Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (opening on September 11), has been tapped by Liongate Entertainment to adapt, direct and produce a film adaptation of Shange's play, according to Variety.

Originally described as “a choreopoem in which a black woman explores inner space in seven facets of herself, with poetry, dance and stories,” For Colored Girls opened at the Public Theater on May 17, 1976, and transferred to Broadway’s Booth Theatre on September 10, running until July 16, 1978. It was nominated for a 1977 Best Play Tony Award and earned a Featured Actress in a Play Tony for star Trazana Beverley. The PBS American Playhouse series broadcast the play in 1982 with a cast that included Beverley, Alfre Woodard and Lynn Whitfield.

Whoopi Goldberg had announced plans to produce a Broadway revival of For Colored Girls in August 2008 starring Indie.Arie, but the production was called off after a key backer withdrew support. Music video director Nzingha Stewart had previously been attached to the film version.

This will be Lionsgate’s tenth collaboration with Perry and its first based on non-original material. For Colored Girls is expected to begin shooting in Atlanta in November and released next year.