I can't find the quote from Tyler Perry, but Madea is definitely not just for Black people. All of his stories are like this: they trick you into watching because it's funny, and easy to watch - but at the same time every story also had hard to talk about problems related to things like family life, drugs, intramarital issues, and prostitution. I listened to an interview with Tyler and he called it a bait-and-switch.
Tyler Perry has already played into film tropes with Boo! and Boo! 2, where Madea gets into some ghoulish hijinks - so Madea's Gilligan's Island would be along those lines.
I love tropes, or playing with tropes more like. it's an inversion of science fiction - where sci-fi relies on changing the parameters of the world (What if we had robots? what if we had telepathy? Predict t he future? How would human life change? What would happen?), a play on tropes allows you to explore how a character you already know might deal with a situation that has been played out manifold times.
Yes, Madea is made for black people, but I'm not black, and I absolutely adore Madea films. I wish more films were made like this - it's an underrepresented category in film. It's been tried by some christian film makers, but they usually come of hard on the nose and aren't enjoyable. Or you have just straight comedies, okay fine. How about we mingle the two and use the story to convey a clear message everyone can grasp? I love it - through all of Madea's characters personal faults, and through the other characters faults, trials and tribulations, there's redemption.
I can enjoy TP films, for the record. I agree with those statements.
Why don't you write the teleplay and try to shop it around? You seem invested in the idea!
while writing this over lunch I was thinking... wait how hard is it to write this? Turns out it's hard, and I'd have to re-read all the madea scripts to understand how the interactions work, plus I don't feel like I have a perfect handle on throwing Madea into the abyss and seeing what happens. In short, it would be fan-fic rather than genuine.
What I want is Tyler Perry & Co to write this movie.
Tyler, I don't want any money, I don't want anything more than having this film made! (you could give me a little cameo though, I'll be a busboy or something)
I have never watched a Medea flick in my life, but now I want to, you made such a strong case. The thought of a lighthearted movie with unexpected soul and a strong, positive message is so appealing.
