Source: LiveNation / LiveNation
West Philly’s own, Boyz II Men are getting their own movie shaped around their musical journey.
Amazon Studios, Davis Entertainment, Blackmaled Productions and the R&B group are teaming up to create a coming of age movie-musical titled Brotherly. According to the movie’s synopsis, the movie will follow a group of men who “will return to West Philadelphia for a high school reunion 20 years after having gone their separate ways — eventually finding hope, redemption and a new understanding of the enduring power of friendship.”
That description is one of the most Boyz II Men things I’ve ever read and it seems perfect for their music to be featured.
Malcolm D. Lee is the owner of Blackmaled Productions and its only fitting that he will be executive producing and possibly directing the film. Lee is most known for his directorial duties within The Best Man franchise, Girl’s Trip, and more recently Space Jam 2: A New Legacy. Alongside Lee will be writer Marcus Gardley.
Gardley is responsible for writing a couple episodes of TV shows like The Chi, NOS4A2, and Maid. He even has the responsibility of penning the upcoming movie musical adaptation of The Color Purple and Marvin Gaye’s biopic What’s Going On. These movies based on Black music are quite the responsibility. What’s Going On reportedly has the highest budget, at $80 million, ever spent on a Black music biopic. Who knows how much money Brotherly will amass to produce.
Boyz II Men were recently featured on ABC’s ‘Live In Front Of A Studio Audience’ program. Two members of the current trio, Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman, appeared on the Diff’rent Strokes re-enactment to sing the theme song.
‘Live in Front of a Studio Audience: ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ – Boyz II Men Perform Live
Boyz II Men first appeared on the scene as a quartet with back in 1991. If you want go even further they were originally a quintet before Marc Nelson left the group due to a personalities conflict. Remaining members Michael McCary, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, and Shawn Stockman went on to create 1991’s Cooleyhighharmony. From there, the Michael Bivins and Dallas Austin produced record made history. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the nine-times-platinum album.
“Motownphilly”
“It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday”
For now, there isn’t any confirmation as to when production for Brotherly will begin. The cast has not been announced yet either. Whenever production does start, Philly has got to be one of the destinations to film. So keep an eye out for film crews, and a trio of brothers running around the city.
With the constant rise of movie-musicals like West Side Story and In The Heights, what would you like to see adapted next?
What albums would translate into a musicals well? Let us know in the comment section.
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