AceShowbiz -

Spike Lee and John Cusack address controversy over the title of new movie "Chiraq" which Lee will direct and Cusack will star in. They spoke at St. Sabina Church on the South Side, joined by grieving parents who have lost their children to the city's gun and gang violence.

"This is not a joke. This is not a game," Lee stressed. "This is real life and death and that's the way we're going to approach this." In response to the criticisms he got mostly from the city's politicians over the title, the director said, "If you do not tell the truth, then you must have fear."

While in town to prepare for the film, Lee took time to attend a funeral for the slain brother of one of his production members. "No one wants to be a member of this club right here," he said, referring to the grieving parents. "We don't want any more members. We want to shut it down."

"We have to stop the madness. This is insane," he stated. "This is nothing to do about Chicago losing tourism. This is not about Chicago losing business. Let's not put the loss of property and profit over human life." The early critics would "look stupid and be on the wrong side of history," he added.

Native Chicago Cusack, meanwhile, said, "I love my city of Chicago - all of Chicago - and I'd never do anything to hurt it." The film is about Chicago "but it could easily be any urban American city where poverty and violence and desperation are so ever-present," the actor explained.

"I am 100 percent sure the great city of Chicago can survive a film of conscience just like it did Transformers," he joked.

The film, an Amazon first foray into feature film industry, will also reportedly star Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Piven, Common, Kanye West, and Jennifer Hudson. It was criticized due to the title which is a combination of Chicago and Iraq. The U.S. city often draws comparison to the war-torn zone due to its increasing murder and gun-violence rate in the past few years.