Lionsgate announced today that it has acquired worldwide distribution rights to filmmaker Tyler Perry’s adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s award-winning 1975 play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” Perry will write, direct and produce. The film will be the first project for 34th Street Films, Perry’s new production company, which is housed at Lionsgate. Paul Hall (Pride) also produces. The announcement was jointly made today by Joe Drake, Lionsgate Co-Chief Operating Officer and Motion Picture Group President, and Mike Paseornek, Lionsgate President of Motion Picture Production.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf will feature an all-star cast of female actors. Principal photography is scheduled to begin in Atlanta in November 2009 and continue through December 2009. Lionsgate plans to release the film in 2010.
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf will be the tenth title in Lionsgate’s ongoing franchise with filmmaker Perry, and it is Perry’s first film to be based on non-original material. The franchise’s eighth title, Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself, opens nationwide on September 11, followed by the opening of Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? on April 2, 2010. Perry is also a co-presenter and executive producer, with Oprah Winfrey, of Lee Daniels’s Sundance Film Festival award-winner Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, which Lionsgate is releasing in November.
Said Paseornek, “We are thrilled to see Tyler take the helm on ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.’ From the very beginning of his career, Tyler has told compelling stories about women’s lives, and he has created a memorable gallery of multidimensional female characters. He is an ideal person to bring Ntozake Shange’s play to the screen, and this movie will be a major treat for audiences across the board.”
Commented Perry, “Making a film of ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf’ 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. Creatively, this movie is one of the most exciting undertakings of my career, and I’m excited to start production this November.”
