Between “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X,” “He Got Game,” and “Inside Man,” Denzel Washington and Spike Lee have had more than enough opportunities to collaborate with one another, and yet it seems neither could let more time go by without doing at least one more project together.
The actor and auteur reunited for the first time in almost 20 years for the upcoming crime film “Highest 2 Lowest.” The project is inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” which starred Toshiro Mifune as a wealthy Japanese businessman who gets caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with a sadistic kidnapper. The film shot last year in New York City and is expected to be released sometime in 2025. Speaking in a recent interview with The New York Times, Washington expressed his joy in getting to work with Lee again, though he didn’t feel much time had passed at all.
“It didn’t feel like 20 years,” he said. “It felt like we picked up where we left off.”
It also seems like their shared work may not be done with “Highest 2 Lowest,” as Washington was quick to say he’d be ready for whatever Lee threw at him next.
“Spike is consistently Spike, and I love that about him,” Washington said. “And I love working with him, and I’d work with him again. I just like the way his brain works.”
In a separate interview in Variety from December 2024, Lee described “Highest 2 Lowest” as “a reinterpretation of the great Kurosawa” rather than a full-on remake. He also shared his enthusiasm for getting to work with Washington again and felt similarly that no time had passed.
“We’re brothers. It’s 18 years since we shot our last film together. That’s a gap. But I was surprised it didn’t feel that way,” Lee said. “I’m very blessed to have worked with him on five films. We don’t have to sit down and look at each other. We just do our thing.”
“Highest 2 Lowest” also reunites Lee and Washington with their “Inside Man” cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, whose last film with Lee was 2015’s “Chi-Raq.” Also featured in the cast are Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, and Ice Spice. No release date has been set for the film yet.
