Casting Many Background Actors in Chicago for Spike Lee’s “Chiraq”

A new Spike Lee film is beginning production in the Chicago area and casting African American kids and many others of all ages and ethnicities for extra work.

The film is seeking to fill 2 featured roles. They seek a girl who is 7 to 9 years of age as well as a boy that is between the ages of 3 and 5. Both roles are for African American children only. Also, the casting directors have just released the general background casting registration form for talent looking for some extra work in Chicago.

The movie will be filming in the Chicagoland area this summer and has an open casting call coming up this weekend for talent to fill more general roles. For more information about the upcoming casting event, please see  Open Casting Call in Chicago for New Spike Lee Movie.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee will be making a movie about Chicago.  According to the Columbia Chronicle, the project will explore the subject of “black-on-black violence,” with focus on Chicago’s South Side. Not much is known about the plot but a recent Chicago Tribune report stated that Kanye West, Jeremy Piven, Samuel L. Jackson and hip-hop artist Common will all appear in the film. The movie is being called “Chiraq” and refers to a time (2003–2011) when the murder rate in Chicago was higher than the casualty count in the Iraq war… leaving more Americans dead in the city than in the war zone. The city’s mayor and city council are not too happy with the film’s title and had made a request to change the name of the film.

Please note that the below submission info is only for the 2 child roles listed. No other submissions will be accepted at this time and all other talent must attend the upcoming open call in order to be considered.

CASTING CALL – SPIKE LEE FILM

For our regular extras who did not attend the open call, but would like to be considered for the film.

You must complete a submission and fill out survey – You must DO BOTH!

Please send an email to extras4chitruth@gmail.com with the following:

NON-UNION EXTRAS

POTENTIAL FILM DATES: May 19th through July 10th
LOCATION: Englewood and surrounding neighborhoods
RATE: $150/8

EXTRA PART #1: African American, Female, 7-9 yoa
EXTRA PART #2: African American, Male, 3-5 yoa

If interested and you have good availability, send an email to extras4chitruth@gmail.com with the following info:
1) Put EXTRA PART #1 OR #2 in the subject line.
2) Include your name, age, phone number, email address, height, weight and zip code in the body of the email.
3) Attach recent jpeg photos of yourself – close up and full body shot – these do not need to be professional pictures – candid photos of you up against a neutral wall, with a solid color shirt, and decent lighting will suffice.
4) Give us an idea of your schedule for the duration of filming – any family vacations planned, etc.
5) Confirm that you are able to travel to Englewood via public transportation or that you have your own vehicle.
6) Confirm that you have a current, valid, Illinois work permit with either 4 Star Casting or a talent agent, i.e. Lily’s, Paonessa, etc. You MUST give us the name of the employer listed on the work permit.

Note: If you do not have a work permit, you must tell us that it is pending, and then go to our website at http://www.4starcasting.com/minors-registration—illinois.…, and start the process. You then must notify us when you have the work permit in hand. If we don’t hear back on your progress within a week of submission, we will assume that you are out of the running.

We will contact you if you are in consideration.

You must answers all the questions and be registered with us at www.4starcasting.com to be considered.

NOTE: ALL submissions should be sent to extras4chitruth@gmail.com