A24/Apple
Iconic and longtime collaborators Denzel Washington and Spike Lee are linking up for the first time since 2006’s Inside Man, as the first trailer for Lee’s new film Highest 2 Lowest has been released. Highest 2 Lowest is a co-production between A24 and Apple.
On Monday, May 5, A24 shared the first poster for the movie and announced that the first teaser would be released tomorrow, May 6. However, after Spike Lee posted the teaser on his Instagram, the studio pivoted and rolled it out officially.
Highest 2 Lowest has been described by Lee as being an reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, which was itself loosely based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom by Ed McBain.
As the trailer makes sure to highlight, Spike and Denzel have previously collaborated on the films Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, and Inside Man, making Highest 2 Lowest the fifth time they’ve worked together.
Check out the official synopsis and teaser for Highest 2 Lowest, via A24, below.
“When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the ‘best ears in the business’, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City.”
Alongside the legendary two-time Academy Award-winning Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest is also set to star Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice (In her film debut), ASAP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, Dean Winters, and John Douglas Thompson.
Not only is Highest 2 Lowest the first collaboration between Denzel and Spike since 2006, but it’s also Lee’s first film in five years, having last directed 2020’s Da 5 Bloods. Highest 2 Lowest will be released in movie theaters on August 22 and on Apple TV+ September 5.