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Denzel Washington‘s creative relationship with director Spike Lee goes all the way back to the 1990s’Mo’ Better Blues, which they followed up with the landmark moviesMalcolm X,He Got Game, andInside Man. After a 19-year break, they have reunited for the kidnapping thriller Highest 2 Lowest. It hits theaters August 15 and comes to Apple TV+ September 5.
Highest 2 Lowest is a loose remake of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa film High and Low, which drew inspiration from Ed McBain’s 1959 crime novel King’s Ransom. In the new incarnation, Washington plays a music mogul who gets drawn into a cat-and-mouse game across New York City when his son is kidnapped. It also stars Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, A$AP Rocky, Ice Spice, Dean Winters, and John Douglas Thompson.
In a new trailer, Washington is seen living the big life in New York before he learns his son has been taken. The kidnapper demands $17.5 million in a backpack for his return, and hangs up when Washington tries to tell him he doesn’t have that much money.
“I know what it is to risk everything you have for something that you want,” Washington tells him over the phone. “I know what that means, to have nothing, and want everything.”
A$AP Rocky plays Washington’s son. “Yeah, don’t sleep on A$AP,” Lee said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “In this film, Denzel and A$AP go toe-to-toe. What’s interesting is, even before I got involved with this film, I always thought that A$AP looked like he could be Denzel’s son. There’s a big resemblance. So when you see it on the screen, it adds an element of father and son.”
At the Highest 2 Lowest premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Lee said this was probably his final collaboration with Washington. “I think this is it — five,” he said. “He’s been talking about retirement, even though he’s just done another deal. Five films together, they stand up.”
Washington recently wrapped up a stint in Othello on Broadway, where he portrayed the title character alongside Jake Gyllenhaal as Iago. It was an enormous success that broke box office records.
