The new Spike Lee joint–the first for the iconic, formerly more prolific director in the last five years–looks to recapture some of the filmmaker’s classic mojo by reuniting Spike with one of his muses, in the form of Denzel Washington. Highest 2 Lowest is an intriguing project for Lee, representing both an Americanized/English language remake/reimagining of a classic film from Akira Kurosawa (1963’s High and Low), and another chance to work with Washington, who anchored several of the director’s most beloved films. Washington has of course appeared in the likes of Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues and as the title character of Malcolm X, in addition to being in He Got Game and Inside Man. In more recent years, Lee even worked with Denzel’s son, John David Washington, in 2018’s lauded BlacKkKlansman, but now it’s apparently time for his 70-year-old father, fresh off critical acclaim from Gladiator 2, to again regain the spotlight.
Highest 2 Lowest is described as a neo-noir crime thriller, and judging from the fact that it’s based on Kurosawa’s Highest 2 Lowest, it will presumably also revolve around a kidnapping and ransom situation. The actual teaser seen below, on the other hand, doesn’t explicitly make much of this clear: It mostly captures Spike’s visual style for the film and hints at the talented ensemble cast, which includes American Fiction‘s Jeffrey Wright, musicians Ice Spice and ASAP Rocky, and frequent Lee collaborator Ilfenesh Hadera. It’s the director’s first film since the 2020 Chadwick Boseman-starring Netflix feature Da 5 Bloods, which garnered quite a handful of major awards nominations.
Highest 2 Lowest is an A24 production, and features an immaculately edited teaser below, in which Washington can be heard intoning a delightfully fast-paced and subtly rhyming set of queries. The film is scheduled to premiere out of competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in May, followed by limited theatrical release in the U.S. on Aug. 22, 2025. It will quickly migrate to Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, 2025. You can check out the first teaser for Lee’s newest joint below.
