PERRY TO WRITE "FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE"

Let me start this off by saying that I totally disagree with this move by Lionsgate. So it appears that in typical Hollywood fashion Lionsgate has pulled the switcheroo on the upcoming "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" film. Originally they had selected Nzingha Stewart to pen the film adaptation from Ntozake Shange's classic 1975 play.

Now these folks have taken the project away from Nzingha Stewart and given it to Tyler Perry.

My BIG problem with this...despite Perry's ability to dress up and pretend to be a black woman...he's not. And Ntozake's play is a really deep and personal look into the minds of black women and all that we go through. Some things a man is just not going to get and there's where I have a problem with Mr. Perry being selected for this job.

I'm sure that the heads at Lionsgate could care less about what this book means to black women, or to me for that matter, but something really must be said. It's not often that we get a film made that means so much to our plight and for it not to be helmed by a black female is really a tragedy...SIGH...

Lionsgate said that it had acquired worldwide distribution rights to the pic and this will be the first project for Perry's 34th Street Films production company, housed at Lionsgate. Paul Hall ("Pride") is also producing.

"For Colored Girls" will begin shooting in Atlanta in November, with Lionsgate planning a release next year. The play is a series of 20 poems telling stories of love, abandonment, domestic abuse and other issues faced by black women.

"For Colored Girls," written by Ntozake Shange, was first performed in 1975; it was made into a 1982 telepic with Shange, Laurie Carlos, Trazana Beverly, Alfre Woodard and Lynn Whitfield for PBS' "American Playhouse" banner. A Broadway revival, produced by Whoopi Goldberg and starring India.Arie, was announced for the 2008-09 season but got yanked last summer when funding fell through.