When the Cannes lineup was announced last month, one of the more noticeable omissions was Spike Lee’s latest joint, Highest 2 Lowest, a “reinterpretation” of Kurosawa Akira’s 1963 masterpiece High and Low. Then, one hour later, Lee took to his Instagram to confirm that that the film would indeed premiere at the festival, in the out of competition sidebar, and alongside the final Mission: Impossible film. Following that premiere, the film will be in select theaters August 22, before landing on Apple TV+ two short weeks later.
The film is Lee and Denzel Washington’s fifth collaboration, and their first one in 20 years. They previously collaborated on Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, and Inside Man. The logline reads: “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.”
Highest 2 Lowest also stars Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and A$AP Rocky.
Highest 2 Lowest is in select theaters August 22.
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