Ingredient #1: Stay on Track
The Family That Preys
Who: Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard
What: Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright and her dear friend Alice Pratt, a working class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout many years. Suddenly, their lives become mired in turmoil as their adult children’s extramarital affairs, unethical business practices and a dark paternity secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved.
Madea's Family Reunion
Who: Lisa Arrindell Anderson, Jenifer Lewis
What: Madea's fed-up niece, who has very special goals of her own, goes head to head with her overbearing, bourgeois (aka 'bougie') mother, who's forcing her to marry a rich man she doesn't love.
The 'Perry Secret': Fully in step with how Tyler Perry conducts his professional life, one thing's for sure his characters who experience real growth and emerge as better people for it, are the ones who stick-it-out. Be determined. Have faith that taking an alternative path can work. It never hurts for a filmmaker to add a character to the mix, whom audiences can root for no matter how "out there" they are.
"I really admire Tyler as a filmmaker--he’s a maverick and he’s giving a voice to an entire community in Hollywood that doesn’t get that. I was really proud of him for that and I was really happy to do a read-thru when he asked me."
--Sanaa Lathan, The Family that Preys