Fresh pre-production details have emerged on Chiraq, the upcoming Spike Lee film starring, Saumeul L Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, John Cuasak alongside MCs Common and Kanye West. Screendaily reports that the picture is currently being shopped around for foreign distribution deals at the Cannes Film Festival with hopes of being formally announced before French fete wraps up on May 24th.
Lee's plot will re-tell the Greek drama Lysistrata, which was written by Aristophanes and first performed in 411 B.C. A tale of one woman's quest to end the Peloponnesian War (by convincing warriors' wives to deny their spouses sex until peace is declared), Lysistrata will be recontextualized by Lee as a tale of gang violence in present Chicago--in case Chiraq didn't already give that away--and will center around one lead actor's quest to stem bloodshed in the Englewood neighborhood.
Screendaily also reports that Amazon will be directly involved in the new Spike Lee joint's release, which means we could be seeing a straight-to-VOD debut once filming has wrapped. Aristophanes's original work is a musical comedy, which likely explains the inclusion of West, Common and Hudson (all of which are Chicago natives).
