Denzel Washington Reunites with Spike Lee in First Trailer for Highest 2 Lowest: Watch

Spike Lee has released the first trailer for his A24 crime thriller Highest 2 Lowest. The film marks his fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington, who stars as a New York City music executive faced with a ransom plot. Watch the trailer below.

Highest 2 Lowest is an English-language adaptation of the 1963 Japanese film High and Low, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Lee’s version transports the movie to New York City, with Washington as a big-time music tycoon instead of a businessman buying out a shoe company.

The trailer is overlayed with a monologue of Washington asking an unseen character if they can “handle” the responsibilities of a life like his, including, but not limited to: mayhem, success, money, failures, and lovers. Visually, the clip is comprised of intermittent shots of a day in the life as a record label head, like hosting meetings and recording sessions with artists, before shifting to subway chases, shootouts, and a courthouse protest regarding a rapper named Yung Felon.

William Alan Fox wrote the film’s screenplay based on High and Low, which itself is loosely adapted from Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom. Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, A$AP Rocky, and Ice Spice (making her acting debut) round out the cast.

Lee’s most recent film with Washington was 2006’s Inside Man, and they previously worked together on Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, and He Got Game. The director’s latest film was 2020’s Da 5 Bloods, starring Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles.

Highest 2 Lowest opens in select theaters on August 22nd ahead of its Apple TV+ premiere on September 5th.