What Happened to "Alex Cross"?

James Patterson's "Alex Cross" detective novels looked like the perfect franchise for an up-and-coming African American star. Two of the books had already been adapted for film back in 1997 and 2001, where Morgan Freeman played Cross. Neither had particularly strong reviews, but they made decent returns, and proved that there was an audience for the material. When it was announced that there was a new "Alex Cross" film in production, to star "Luther" and "The Wire" star Idris Elba, I was thrilled. Elba's one of those actors that's been a familiar face for years, but hasn't really gotten his shot yet.

Then the next thing I heard, Elba was out, and Tyler Perry of the "Madea" movies was in. Then Matthew Fox was cast as the villain, and proceeded to put himself through one of those extreme body modification regimens to turn himself into a walking headline. Then Rachel Nichols was cast as the female lead, an actress who I previously noted is very lovely, but has all the depth and range of a tube sock. Perry, however, remained the major puzzler. He's primarily a comedic performer who has built a strong niche for himself making films starring African-Americans. However, he had never really broken into mainstream films, and his prior attempts at more dramatic material hadn't been very successful. He'd never had an action role like Alex Cross before, and from an artistic standpoint, casting him didn't make much sense.

From a financial standpoint, however, casting him made perfect sense. Tyler Perry is one of the rare African-American actors who has made himself into a viable brand. His audience may be small, but it's loyal, ensuring that Perry's films always make their money back at the box office in spite of unfriendly reviews. So casting Perry as Alex Cross should have brought his usual audience to the theaters, providing a boost to the box office returns, right? This past weekend "Alex Cross" opened to $11.2 million, one of the lowest openings for any Tyler Perry movie, and lower than either of the previous Alex Cross films that were made a decade earlier. According to the Boxofficemojo reports, Perry's usual audience did make up a large part of the film's audience, but the turnout was only about half of the numbers for his most recent "Madea" movies. More importantly, the general audiences that usually comes out for action films stayed away from "Alex Cross."

This is a prime example of monetary concerns trumping artistic ones, resulting in disaster. I have to wonder if the people who made the decision to cast Tyler Perry had ever seen a Tyle Perry movie. Because if Tyler Perry is a brand, it's one that appeals to an audience that is faith-based, skews female, and skews heavily African-American. This is not generally the audience that major action films are trying to target. I'm sure there's plenty cross-over between the two groups, and other comedic stars have certainly been able to make the leap to dramatic material before, but this may have been a leap too far and too quickly. Scanning over the reviews, which came back almost uniformly negative, “miscast" comes up a lot as a descriptor for Petty's performance. Bad reviews have never been a problem for Tyler Perry movies before, but then Perry's audience knows what to expect from his other films, which stick to a narrow category of broad comedy or uplifting melodrama. Nobody had any idea what Tyler Perry action film would look like. Apparently that includes the people responsible for this film.

I don't know if "Alex Cross" would have done any better with Idris Elba or a similar African-American actor in the lead, but the film would have probably avoided the mixed-messages that resulted from casting Tyler Perry. Much of the blame for the film's failure rests squarely on his shoulders, but I can't fault Perry for pursuing the role, for trying to do something different from his usual Madea shtick and expanding his horizons. I have to wonder how long Perry waited to get this opportunity, his first major film as an actor that he didn't write or direct himself. And I have to wonder how long he'll have to wait to get another chance, if he ever gets another one.

However, the fallout may be damaging beyond Perry's career. Right now I am also very worried that the failure of "Alex Cross" may lead the studio executives holding the purse strings to conclude that African-American leads are too risky, and avoid casting anyone but Will Smith and Denzel Washington in similar projects in the future. After all, if a consistent moneymaker like Tyler Perry couldn't make "Alex Cross" a hit, then someone like Anthony Mackie or Terrence Howard couldn't possibly do any better, could they? That kind of logic may seem laughable, but it's how Hollywood often works.
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