Spike Lee to take on Chicago violence in new film ‘Chiraq’

Director Spike Lee is reported to be working on a new project that will tackle the ongoing violence in Chicago. The film entitled, Chiraq, will be made with Amazon Studios.

“The Oscar-nominated filmmaker is courting Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Piven, Common and Kanye West for the ensemble cast of ‘Chiraq,’ multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.”

Lee was reportedly in the city to conduct research with the help of St. Sabina pastor Rev. Michael Pfleger.

“Thanks to Director/Actor Spike Lee,” Pfleger wrote on his Facebook page, “who spent the day at St. Sabina yesterday talking and interviewing….People who cover the violence, Principals who deal with violence in and around their schools, Brothers from the Blocks who live in it every day and Parents who have lost their children to Violence…..He spent the day from early morning till late in the night….listening and asking questions to try and get a deeper understanding of the plague of violence. Thanks Spike for caring and wanting to understand.”

The city has been juggling on several TV shows, but the movie “Chiraq” would be the first high-profile movie to film in Chicago this year, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Chiraq, the movie’s title, is a controversial tag that compares the city’s gun violence and danger level to that of the war zone in Iraq.