18 years after their last collaboration, director Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, one of the legendary filmmaker/lead actor duos, are teaming up again. This time, it’s for a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic crime thriller, the 1963 Japanese police procedural crime “High And Low,” which originally starred Toshiro Mifune.
The project Apple Original Films announced the project today in collaboration with A24. Filming starts in March of this year, so it’s coming together fast and will presumably be ready for 2025, if not sooner.
“High and Low” is essentially a kidnapping and ransom movie. The original, a gripping drama, centers on a wealthy executive of a Japanese shoe company who becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom. Alan Fox and Lee wrote the script.
Despite an iconic collaboration, Lee and Washington have only collaborated as a director/acting pair four times, but each is super memorable; “Mo Better Blues” in 1990, “Malcolm X” in 1992, “He Got Game” in 1998, and their last team-up, 2006’s “Inside Man.” They’ve obviously tried to pair up on lots of unmade films over the year, but this is the first since “Inside Man.”
This also isn’t the first time someone has remade or tried to remake “High And Low.” Steven Soderbergh’s 2023 miniseries “Full Circle” was inspired by the film, and in the late aughts, Mike Nichols was trying to remake it with David Mamet as the writer. Eventually, Chris Rock took over writing duties on it, but the project went nowhere.
A24 will release the film theatrically before its global launch on Apple TV+. Lee is a huge Kurosawa fan and, in particular, has mentioned “High And Low” as a favorite several times over the years. The Kurosawa film is a stone-cold classic, and you should watch it as soon as you can if you haven’t. Watch the trailer below.
