To commemorate this Friday’s release of Tyler Perry‘s film, For Colored Girls, Essence will print two different covers for their upcoming December edition.  The special issue hits newsstands Nov. 12 and will feature one cover with the film’s male stars (director Tyler Perry, Richard Lawson, Hill Harper, Omari Hardwick, Khalil Kain, and Michael Ealy) and another with the female characters (Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Janet Jackson, Tessa Thompson, and Whoopi Goldberg).

For Colored Girls is based on Ntozake Shange‘s play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.  Shange’s work is acted out in a series of 20 poems and was nominated for best play at the 1977 Tony Awards.

The cover story “Over the Rainbow” will appear on page 115 of the 150-plus page magazine.

Take a look at the men of For Colored Girls cover after the jump.