See First Look at Tyler Perry’s Passion Project “A Jazzman’s Blues” Coming to Netflix This September

CREDIT: JACE DOWNS/NETFLIX

Tyler Perry is ready for fans to see a new side of his repertoire.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the writer/director’s new coming-of-age period drama A Jazzman’s Blues, which debuts on Netflix Sept. 23.

Set in the 1940s deep South, actors Joshua Boone and Solea Pfeiffer play star-crossed lovers Bayou and Leanne, whose forbidden love is the backdrop for decades of secrets and lies being uncovered.

“I wrote it in 1995. It was the first screenplay I ever wrote,” Perry, 52, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “The two characters are just trying to find their own way in the world. Initially, I wanted to play the lead role of Bayou, but that was 1995 — I aged out.”

The Hollywood mogul is in a much different place in life and his career than when he originally wrote A Jazzman’s Blues, making the project even more personal for Perry.

Click here to read more.

SOURCE: PEOPLE, Janine Rubenstein