Netflix won't be the only streaming service looking to score an Oscar later this year. Amazon is looking to get in the game as well, and they're banking on Spike Lee's Chi-Raq to be the film that brings home the gold.
After months of speculation, Amazon has officially picked up the Chicago-based film and will release it in December for an Oscar-qualifying run. With the announcement comes confirmation of the cast, and sadly no it doesn't include Kanye West in any capacity. Based on the Greek play, Lysistrata, the film stars Teyonah Parris (Dear White People) as a woman who goes on a sex strike to protest black-on-black gun violence. The original story had the woman convincing other females to join her in that protest, causing friction between the genders. The rest of the cast consists of the previously revealed Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, John Cusack, D.B. Sweeney, Wesley Snipes, and Nick Cannon, along with Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, and Angela Bassett. Dave Chapelle, confirmed by Lee just last month, isn't mentioned in THR's report so maybe he'll just have a small cameo.
After its theatrical run Amazon will move the film over to Amazin Prime in 2016.
