image

Spike Lee’s long-awaited film Chiraq will arrive before the year is over and today the full-length trailer debuts starring Nick Cannon, Jennifer Hudson and Samuel L. Jackson, to name a few.

“This is an emergency” pops up onscreen in bright red font before the first scene takes place. Then the narrator cites a real and troubling statistic: “Homicides in Chicago, Illinois have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq.”

Jackson, who acts as a tour guide for Chiraq — similar to his role in Lee’s Do the Right Thing — paints Chicago as a “land of pain misery and strife.”

Cannon takes the title role in the film as Chi-Raq, a gun-toting rapper from Chicago while Dear White People‘s Teyonah Parris takes on the lead role of Lysistrata.

Similar to the Greek play that the film is based on, Lysistrata, Parris’ character convinces the women in Chi-town to withhold sex from their men until the bloodshed stops. Their creed promises to “deny rights of access and entrance.”

Angela Bassett, Jon Cusack, Wesley Snipes, La La Anthony and The Wire‘s Felicia Pearson are just some of the big names featured in the movie as well. Dave Chappelle, who’s known spinning serious issues into comedy, also makes a cameo with a corny yet hilarious line: “The situation is out of control ’cause I’m in front of an empty stripper pole.”

Scenes of funerals and protests overcome the screen until the final words of the song playing in the background declares: “Y’all mad ’cause I don’t call it Chicago but I don’t live in no Chicago, boy, I live in Chiraq.”

According to Variety, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate joined forces with Amazon for a limited release of the film set for Dec. 4. The movie will then be made available on Amazon Instant Video.