Although Tyler Perry’s movie haven’t made much of an impact over here, he’s become one of the best paid entertainers in America by making film such as Why Did I Get Married? and Madea Goes To Jail, where he retains complete control as writer, director and oftentimes star, and gets a massive dose of the healthy box office they generate in the US.
So far the only film he’s appeared in that he didn’t also direct was a small role as Admiral Richard Barnett in Star Trek, but now it appears he wants to take on another character that he didn’t create, but which could turn him into an international mainstream star, heading up his own major franchise. Deadline reports that he’s signed on to play Alex Cross in a big-screen reboot of James Patterson’s detective/psychologist character, who was previously played by Morgan Freeman in Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider.
Indeed it’s all change for the do-over, as until recently it was going to be Idris Elba starring with David Twohy directing, but now it’s Tyler Perry with Rob Cohen (xXx, The Fast And The Furious) behind the camera. However as yet there’s no studio backing the flick, although with Perry and Cohen attached, it should get picked up.
It’s now known why Perry took the role when he’s had such success doing him own thing outside the usual movie system, but it could be because Alex Cross is a rare beast – an internationally popular literary franchise, headed by a black character, and the opportunity to bring that to the big screen may have been more than he could resist. With most actors you could say they were doing it for the money, but as Perry already gets paid more than most big movie stars, it’s not like he needs the cash.