Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for ‘Highest 2 Lowest': Watch the first teaser
A24 and Apple TV+ are ready for the big payback.
The distribution partners released the first teaser for Spike Lee's upcoming Highest 2 Lowest on Monday. This is Lee's first film with Denzel Washington in nearly 20 years and his fifth overall.
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The teaser trailer comes ahead of Highest 2 Lowest's world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month as an out-of-competition title.
Inspired by Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, Lee's latest – his first movie since 2020's Da 5 Bloods – focuses on a music mogul (Washington), widely known as having the 'best ears in the business,' who is targeted with a ransom plot that quickly becomes a life-and-death moral dilemma. Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Ice Spice, and A$AP Rocky are all co-stars in the project. The kinetic trailer, which used James Brown's 'The Payback' as its musical accompaniment, features Washington's character discussing the pitfalls of fame and fortune against the backdrop of a cat-and-mouse chase through the New York City streets.
Lee has teased Highest 2 Lowest for months via social media. The Oscar-winning filmmaker spilled the beans about the Cannes premiere after Highest 2 Lowest was left out of the initial lineup announcement. Speaking to Variety, Cannes festival chief Thierry Fremaux explained the film's absence was tied to the potential attendance of Washington, who will appear in France for the May 19 premiere. Of the movie itself, Fremaux added, 'It's the story of a man at the height of his fortune: fate places him before a crucial choice that could call everything into question. Tokyo has become New York, the 1960s the present day, and Denzel Washington takes on the role of Toshirō Mifune in his own way. It is also a great film about family.'
Highest 2 Lowest will premiere in Cannes on May 19, the anniversary of Lee's Do the Right Thing premiering at Cannes in 1989. A24 will debut the movie in theaters for a bit this summer, starting on Aug. 22. A launch on Apple TV+ follows on Sept. 5.
Watch the trailer below.
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