Oprah, Halle, Beyonce... Tyler Perry Looks to All-Star Cast for Colored Girls Film

Tyler Perry is looking to make his big screen adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1975 play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf an all-star affair. The Hollywood hitmaker revealed to BlackVoices.com that Oprah Winfrey will take on a role, and that the following stars are on his dream cast list: Maya Angelou, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Ruby Dee, Kimberly Elise, Alicia Keys, Thandie Newton and Cicely Tyson.

“I’ve talked to six of the women and they have said yes,” Perry boasted, adding that R&B star Mary J. Blige, who appears in his latest film I Can Do Bad All By Myself, has also asked to be a part of the project.

“If you know anything about the play, you know that it's a bunch of poems,” said Perry. “There's no real story, and that's probably why it's never been made into a movie. The way the movie opens is that all of these different women are leading their own lives, and they pass each other and you follow their stories. No one knows each other and halfway in the movie, they end up in this center that this woman started called ‘The Colored Girl center,’ where women go through like a 12-step program for healing. That's what the script is about. I want to make sure that I respect and honor the play because it was written before I was born.”

Evidence of that respect and honor: Perry also confirmed that his drag persona Madea will not make a Colored Girls appearance.

For Colored Girls will start filming in Atlanta in November, with a release scheduled for 2010.