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The ideas behind "War, Inc." have been on Cusack's mind since he read Naomi Klein's 2004 article "Baghdad Year Zero," about the widespread corporate outsourcing in the war-torn country.

"I wanted to do something about the war in Iraq ... sort of a real-time response," says Cusack, warming to his topic. "I wanted to make an incendiary political cartoon."

His focus, he says, was to highlight the use of the war as a new market for American corporations and the control those companies have had over Iraqi rebuilding operations.

"I think the movie should be kind of offensive," Cusack told Reuters about the film, which will be released in New York and Los Angeles theaters on May 23. "I'm shocked at how much good reaction we're getting."

"Sometimes with a serious, somber movie, even though they're great and well intentioned, it just doesn't allow you to be outraged because you just get depressed," he said. "This allows you to actually feel like, 'Let's do something subversive."'

In the movie, Cusack plays a hit man hired by Tamerlane to assassinate a Middle Eastern oil minister who plans to lay an oil pipeline through Turaqistan, thwarting the company's plan for sole proprietorship of the country.

"(The movie) was just a reaction to the war and all the insanity behind using the 9/11 attacks to make an <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>imperial</span> land grab in the Middle East," he said. "We really wanted to channel our outrage a little bit into something creative."

Cusack helped write the screenplay and also stars with Sir Ben Kingsley, Marisa Tomei and Hilary Duff