- Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee’s remake of the Akira Kurosawa classic High and Low starring Denzel Washington, finally has a teaser trailer.
- Kurosawa’s 1963 High and Low has consistently been hailed as “one of the best detective thrillers ever filmed.”
- Highest 2 Lowest release date: August 22nd, 2025 (US theatrical) | September 5th, 2025 (Apple TV+).
Almost two decades on since Hollywood’s most consistent star, Denzel Washington, teamed up with Spike Lee for Inside Man, the modern cinema icons have reunited to craft their second crime thriller collaboration: Apple Studios and A24’s remake of the legendary Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low.
The 1963 original – loosely based on the Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom – involves a wealthy executive named Kingo Gondo (Toshiro Mifune) who deliberately puts himself into debt in a high-risk bid to enact a hostile takeover of a shoe company.
Things become complicated when he receives a phone call from someone claiming to have kidnapped his son just as he’s about to execute his master plan. The second twist? In a case of mistaken identity, the kidnappers have accidentally abducted his chauffeur’s son. Kingo must then negotiate the innocent child’s freedom while assuming control of the company.
Highest 2 Lowest, however, centres on “titan music mogul” David King (Washington), who is targeted in a similar ransom plot. A life-or-death moral dilemma ensues. With the trailer above and story context provided, you can probably fill in the blanks. Let’s just hope Lee has learned his lessons from the perils of a tepid remake that misunderstands its source material post-Oldboy.
Washington has been joined by Ilfenesh Hadera as Pam King, Jeffrey Wright as Paul Christopher, Ice Spice in her screen debut as Marisol Cepeda, A$AP Rocky as Yung Felony, Dean Winters as Detective Higgins, John Douglas Thompson as Detective Earl Bridges, LaChanze as Detective Bell; along with Aubrey Joseph as Trey King, Michael Potts as Patrick Bethea, and Wendell Pierce as Gabe.
Spike Lee has, of course, directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with William Alan Fox. Highest 2 Lowest has been produced by Todd Black (Washington’s The Equalizer Trilogy, The Taking of Pelham 123, Fences) for Escape Artists and Jason Michael Berman (Uncorked, Air) for Mandalay Pictures.Â
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Highest 2 Lowest marks Washington and Lee’s fifth collaboration after Malcolm X, He Got Game, Mo’ Better Blues, as well as the aforementioned Inside Man, of which the former co-starred alongside Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Given the Academy Award-winning actor has earned Oscar nominations from projects handled by all of the names listed above – and his 10th from A24’s The Tragedy of Macbeth – I’d say this one’s in safe hands.
As for the matter of a release date, after a world premiere at this month’s 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Highest 2 Lowest is scheduled for a theatrical release in the US on August 22nd, 2025, before becoming available to stream on Apple TV+ on September 5th, 2025 – check out the teaser trailer above.
