Washington and Lee reunite for their first film in nearly two decades
Denzel Washington Stars in Spike Lee’s Upcoming Adaptation “Highest 2 Lowest”
BY Esther Kalu
May 7, 2025
8:46 am
American actor Denzel Washington is set to star as a powerful music mogul in “Highest 2 Lowest,” an upcoming crime thriller directed by Spike Lee.
The project marks the pair’s first collaboration in 19 years, since the 2006 Netflix hit “Inside Man.”
Revealed in an update on May 6, the film follows a legendary music executive forced to confront a life-altering moral dilemma.
Written by William Alan Fox, “Highest 2 Lowest” is a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film “High and Low,” which itself was adapted from Ed McBain’s 1959 novel “The King’s Ransom”.
While Kurosawa’s version centered on a businessman faced with the choice of saving a child or preserving his career, Lee’s version shifts the lens to the music industry, exploring power, sacrifice, and personal legacy.
The A24 and Apple-backed production also stars rapper A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Dean Winters, John Thompson, and Ice Spice.
“Highest 2 Lowest” will be Washington and Lee’s fifth collaboration, and it is slated for a theatrical release on August 22.