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By Steven Zeitchik
Feb 19, 2008

Tyler Perry is turning Madea into a cartoon.

The multihyphenate has teamed up with animation company Exodus Film Group to adapt one of his flagship characters for an animated series.

Perry will create, write and exec produce an undetermined number of 22-minute standalone episodes of the series. Perry, who conceived of the idea with William Morris' Charles King and Exodus' Jerome Williams, will produce along with Williams and Exodus' John Eraklis and Max Howard, with Exodus financing. Perry is attached to voice Madea.

The untitled project has not yet sought distribution; it could go to a television network, to DVD, or to both.

Perry had previously adapted his plays about Mabel "Madea" Simmons, known for her hard-bitten wisdom about family and life, with movies such as "Madea's Family Reunion" and "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," all of which earned at least $50 million at the boxoffice. The next Madea feature, "Meet the Browns," will be out next month from Lionsgate.

He also has written for television with the current TBS series "Tyler Perry's House of Payne."

Perry, who has never written an animated project before, said his goal was to take the more adult-themed Madea and gear it toward younger viewers. "A lot of the plays were not kid-friendly ... I wanted to do something more appropriate and this seems to be it," he said.

Exodus is teaming with studios on a number of film projects, including the John Cusack- and John Cleese-voiced "Igor" with the Weinstein Co. and "The Hero of Color City," which Magnolia is distributing.

Copycat said:

rock on Tyler

Madea could be a very good character to give honor to the importance of intergenerational communication and the importance of our elders in providing wisdom.


or it could suck

Copycat said:

No No Nooooo

Madea is not meant to be kid-friendly! I want to see her putting out cigarettes on children and shooting at her relatives, or I don't want to see her at all.

oooooh! I can hardly wait!!!

JerseyKRS said:

Lying ass liar.

FunkMistress said:

stfu!! you better be nice to me or I'm gonna post your job biography on this site!!

JerseyKRS said:

You wouldn't.

FunkMistress said:

of course I would!

I'm not feeling it. Then again I never got this whole Madea mystic-thingy, anyway. Or should I say the whole Tyler Perry's Madea-mystic, not Madeas in general.
[Edited 2/19/08 11:46am]

that would be funny

Wow, if this happens he really needs a good strong kick in the ass.

As if having the Proud Family on tv isn't horrible enough.