Tyler Perry to play a newspaper editor in Brain On Fire

By Matt Wayt | July 21, 2015 | 9:06pm

Aux Features Film

Tyler Perry has signed on to play a newspaper editor in Brain On Fire, starring Chloë Grace Moretz as a New York Post reporter who suffers from seizures and psychotic episodes, eventually leading to her hospitalization. Based on Susannah Cahalan’s best-selling memoir, the film follows the journalist as she questions her sanity and her diagnosis before uncovering the truth behind her symptoms.

That all sounds pretty dire, but hopefully Perry will still be able to dispense some of his trademark sass in the role of a Post editor. Perhaps he’ll eviscerate Cahalan’s poor writing and then ask, “Girl, have you ever heard of ‘i’ before ‘e,’ except after ‘c’?” Or maybe he’ll teach her not to write incomplete sentences by saying, “Girl, you’re suspended until,” and then not finishing his thought. Or maybe he’ll just call it like he sees it with comments like, “Girl, your brain is on fire. Go to the hospital.”

Brain On Fire will also star Carrie-Ann Moss and Richard Armitage as Cahalan’s parents, as well as Jenny Slate and Thomas Mann. The film will be directed by Gerard Barrett and is due for a 2016 release.

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