Amazon brings some heavy-hitters together for new Spike joint
Last year’s Golden Globe Award-winning TV series Transparent brought Amazon enough exposure to be mentioned as a force to be reckoned with, alongside Hulu and Netflix, when it comes to original internet TV and movie programming. They aren’t stopping there.
Today, The Wrap has revealed the internet retailer’s plans for a Spike Lee-directed film, Chiraq, which will bring together the talents of several talented actors and creatives–Kanye West, Common, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Piven are among them. Jackson is the only of the four not born or raised in either Chicago or a neighboring city (Piven was born in Evanston, IL, a 25-minute drive from Chi-town).
Details on the project are scarce, but one can imagine what Chiraq‘s plot will be centered around. The term became popular during Chief Keef and his 300 crew’s rise to prominence in 2012, when their raps and guerilla music videos about violence became an American major label fascination. In fact, Noisey, the music division of Vice Media, shot an 8-part documentary involving Keef and several of his comrades in 2014, and titled it Noisey: Chiraq.
