UPDATE: Trailer for this film has now been released and a limited release date of Dec 4th has been set. The cast includes some dynamic Broadway Black actors including Samuel L. Jackson & Angela Bassett, who were both on Broadway in Katori Hall‘s The Mountaintop. The trailer showcases Teyonah Paris , who stars as Lysistrata and you’ll also see Jennifer Hudson for a quick second, who is making her Broadway debut in The Color Purple. Watch the trailer below.
While Broadway Black previously reported that a Spike Lee sequel to School Daze appears to have been shelved, Lee has not been resting on his laurels. Leading producer, financier and international sales agency IM Global will soon be taking Chiraq, Lee’s next project, to the Cannes market to shop it to international buyers. Chiraq is a retelling of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy Lysistra, in which women band together to end the Peloponnesian War by refusing to have sex with their husbands until the fighting is over. In Lee’s vision, women similarly withhold sex in an attempt to end gang violence in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. One can definitely see the potential for a dramedy musical based on a battle of the sexes, not unlike Lee’s previous success with School Daze. Jennifer Hudson has signed on and Common, Jere
my Piven and John Cusack are reportedly in talks for significant roles in the film. Kanye West is in negotiations to be involved with the film’s soundtrack.
Although Chiraq has not begun filming (at the time this article was written), it has already amassed its share of critics. Chicago’s mayor Rahm Emanuel and some Chicagoans take umbrage with the film’s polarizing title, which equates Chicago’s streets to the unrest in Iraq. “Chi-Raq” is also the title of a Nicki Minaj track where she raps, “King pins and them drug lords, Chi-town, no gun laws.” Chiraq will be released through Amazon Studios in the U.S., with tentative plans for a theatrical rollout in 2016.
