Tyler Perry is writing a science fiction film, and people are going nuts with the news. Perry himself has become controversial on the internet because his films are made for a target audience that rarely gets films made for them, and that audience is not the traditional geek audience of the nerdosphere. Thus, when his films are announced the reactions usually are along the lines of “Who gave Tyler Perry more money?” and then pages of arguments about whether a guy in a dress is funny, usually also bringing up Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. I for one am in the camp that there is nothing really wrong with Tyler Perry’s films as a concept, though some of the films do have their own message or structural problems. Madea is a way to bring comic relief to some of the earlier stories (back when they were stage plays) which often dealt with serious issues, but she got a life of her own because she was hilarious. You can make a valid argument now about overkill. You can even make a point about these being modern day minstrel shows. But you can’t deny that Tyler Perry has talent, or deny that he knows how to reach an audience and speak to them. He’s also one of the few black directors making consistently profitable films with black stars. Like him or not, he’s important.

And his profession of love of science fiction films is also understandable, if you recall he had a role in the Star Trek reboot that seemed to be completely a mystery as to why. But it’s obvious that he loves science fiction films. From the interview in BlackFilm where he professes love for the Alien franchise (his favorite films, though he was disappointed with Prometheus) and mentions his first movie experience watching The Wiz. It’s a great interview and I look forward to his film, even if it involves cross-dressing xenomorphs yelling at Eugene Levy. Especially then.