According to Variety, HBO has set Tyler Perry to portray pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux in an upcoming biopic, which is based upon film historian Patrick McGilligan’s 2007 biography Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker.
Novelist turned filmmaker Micheaux made his directorial debut in 1919 with an adaptation of his book The Homesteader, having raised the money himself after rejecting an earlier offer from another company who refused to allow him to direct. Working outside of the Hollywood studio system he would go on to helm over 40 films throughout his career, including Within Our Gates, The Exile, Swing!, and The Notorious Elinor Lee, before passing away in 1951.
The script for the film is being written by Charles Murray (Sons of Anarchy, Roots), while Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are producing, having previously developed biopics on the likes of The Beach Boys, Judy Garland, The Three Stooges, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
