Tyler Perry finalizes cast for Netflix’s ‘A Jazzman’s Blues’

"I have waited a quarter of a century to tell this story."

May 7, 2021

Tyler Perry penned his first screenplay 26 years ago and now he’s gearing up to bring the feature film to life via his partnership with Netflix.

The Hollywood mogul has finalized the cast of his upcoming drama A Jazzman’s Blues starring Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer. Perry has added 8 additional actors to the project, which he will direct and produce. Amirah Vann, Austin Scott, Milauna Jackson, Brent Antonello, Brad Benedict, Kario Marcel, Lana Young and Ryan Eggold round out the cast.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Perry’s A Jazzman’s Blues “unravels forty years of secrets and lies in a tale of forbidden love and family drama soundtracked by juke joint blues in the deep South. Perry penned the screenplay 26 years ago, the first one he’d ever written,” the outlet writes.

93rd Annual Academy Awards - Press Room — Tyler Perry/Getty Images)

“I have waited a quarter of a century to tell this story and now is the perfect time and Netflix is the perfect partner,” says Perry. According to the report, A Jazzman’s Blues began shooting this week in Savannah, Georgia, and at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. It’s currently set for a 2022 release on Netflix.

Meanwhile, as theGRIO previously reported, Perry is developing a prequel exploring the life of his signature character, Madea, that takes place during her raucous 20s.

The potential series, titled Mabel, is being co-created by Perry and Tim Palen. Twin TV writers JaNeika and JaSheika James will handle its writing and executive produce, according to The Wrap. Showtime has reportedly ordered “multiple scripts” of the hour-long drama.

“Long before she was the force of nature known as Madea, she was a smart, fierce, irresistible, dangerous, crazy 20-something black woman named Mabel Simmons. When she moved to Atlanta in 1972, she set the city — and the world — on fire,” reads the official description of the series.

Madea, the character played by Perry, has appeared in nine of Perry’s films and was a fixture on his stage plays before he broke into Hollywood.

“Madea is a cross between my mother and my aunt and watching Eddie Murphy, the brilliant Eddie Murphy, do The Klumps. I thought — maybe I should try my hand at a female character. And that’s what came up. I thought I’d imitate the funniest person that I know, and she is exactly the PG version of my mother and my aunt, and I loved having an opportunity to pay homage to them,” Perry told NPR in 2012.

*theGRIO’s Biba Adams contributed to this report.

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