It’s about that time for another Tyler Perry production and it is a project that the filmmaker previously said is “very, very different for” him. Perry has built a billion-dollar empire with the help of his famed character Mabel Simmons, but his other non-Madea productions have also proven to be lucrative. The Chitlin Circuit icon has been preparing for the release of his forthcoming Netflix film, A Jazzman’s Blues.
This screenplay was the first that Perry had ever written, and 27 years after it was first penned, it finally comes to fruition. Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer star as forbidden lovers in a story that “unspools forty years of secrets and lies soundtracked by juke joint blues in the deep South.”
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Last month, Perry told PEOPLE Every Day that when he attempted to recruit “up-and-coming artists who were getting a lot of attention” for the film, they turned him down. “I think there was a reservation or hesitation about working with me in particular on this film.”
“Too bad, so sad for them,” he added. “A lot of times these teams don’t necessarily understand the power of my audience and what I bring. The people who are in [A Jazzman’s Blues] made it exactly what it was supposed to be. It’s better than I ever thought it would be, but it’s always been very important to me to break new faces. And that has opened the door for me to be able to help so many people.”
Check out the trailer for A Jazzman’s Blues below. The film premieres on Netflix on September 23.