Latest news with #EdMcBain
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest, Kurosawa's film, and a 1962 TV show episode share one surprising link
It might surprise some movie fans, but Spike Lee's latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, and an old 1962 TV episode all come from the same source material. The crime novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain. The novel came out in 1959 and is part of McBain's long-running 87th Precinct series. The stories are set in a made-up city and follow a group of detectives solving tough crimes. Denzel Washington stars in Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest.(YouTube/A24) Lee's film, which stars Denzel Washington, keeps the main idea from the book, a tense kidnapping and ransom, but updates it for today. The setting, the style, even the social themes feel modern, though the bones of the story are still there. King's Ransom inspires 3 different adaptations Kurosawa's classic 1963 High and Low also took inspiration from King's Ransom. He moved the action to Japan and told it in his own way, but the moral struggle at the heart stayed the same. Before either of those films, the story had already hit TV. In 1962, the NBC series 87th Precinct aired an episode called King's Ransom according to IMDb. It followed the book closely. That show did not last long, just one season, but it was known for showing police work in a more realistic way than most dramas at the time. The cast included Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Norman Fell. Despite its short run, the show built a small but loyal fan base. Also read: Movie Review: Spike Lee's 'Highest 2 Lowest' finds its groove in New York's streets Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest inspired by cult classic novel Ed McBain- real name Evan Hunter- became one of the most important crime writers of his time. His books did not just sell well; they kept inspiring directors for decades. You can see it clearly here: one book leading to a Japanese classic, a new Spike Lee movie, and a forgotten TV episode from the early '60s. Three very different takes, all born from the same 1959 crime novel. Shows how a strong story can live on in so many forms. FAQs Q1. What is Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest about? It's a modern take on the kidnapping drama High and Low, set in New York and starring Denzel Washington. Q2. What novel inspired these films and the TV episode? The 1959 crime novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain. Q3. Who else adapted the book before Spike Lee? Akira Kurosawa adapted it in 1963 as High and Low, and NBC made a TV episode in 1962 for 87th Precinct. Q4. What is the 87th Precinct series? It's a police procedural book series by Ed McBain, later turned into a short-lived TV series in the early 1960s. Q5. Why is King's Ransom important? It's an example of how one crime novel can cross cultures and decades, inspiring very different screen versions.
Yahoo
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Denzel Washington Takes On New York City In Spike Lee's ‘Highest 2 Lowest' Trailer
The official trailer for the newest Spike Lee Joint has been released. Starring Denzel Washington, Highest 2 Lowest finds the acclaimed actor in a fight for his family and his morals. The film, directed by Lee, is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese kidnapping drama High and Low, which is loosely based on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter). According to the official description, Washington leads as a titan music mogul, widely known for having the 'best ears in the business.' The film marks the fifth collaboration between the actor and director, with the last standing as Inside Man, released back in 2006. Their previous works are Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, and He Got Game. Highest 2 Lowest is written by Alan Fox and Lee, and developed and produced by Apple and A24, Escape Artists, and Mandalay Pictures. It debuted out of competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and will hit theaters on Aug. 15, 2025, before arriving on Apple TV+ on September 5. The film also stars A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, Dean Winters, John Douglas Thompson, and Ice Spice. 'Yeah, don't sleep on A$AP,' Lee exclaimed of the Harlem rapper's major acting debut. '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,' he details. 'There's a big resemblance. So when you see it on the screen, it adds an element of father and son. Don't sleep on A$AP. Don't sleep on A$AP.' Watch the trailer for Highest 2 Lowest above. More from Spike Lee Says A$AP Rocky Went "Toe To Toe" With Denzel Washington In New Film: "They Were Going At It" Why Drake's Claim That UK Rappers Are Superior Lyricists Should Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt Rihanna, ASAP Rocky, And Children Attend Her Father's Funeral In Barbados Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Highest 2 Lowest review – Spike Lee and Denzel Washington remake Kurosawa in fine style
Spike Lee has made a brash, bold, big-city movie with this pulsing New York adventure that doubles as a love letter to NYC's sports and its music. It is a remake (or maybe cover version) of Akira Kurosawa's classic downbeat noir High and Low from 1963, transplanting the action from Yokohama to New York – or rather returning it there, because the original source material, Ed McBain's novel King's Ransom, is set in a fictional city based on the Big Apple. It's got a terrific throb of energy and life, moving across the screen with the rangy grace of its superstar Denzel Washington – though a little of the minor-key sombreness and complex pessimism and cynicism of the first film has been lost and the modern technology of GPS (unknown in Kurosawa's day) has indirectly left it with a very small plausibility issue. In Kurosawa's movie, the incomparably leonine Toshiro Mifune played Gondo, the prosperous salaryman working for a shoe manufacturer who rashly mortgages the luxurious penthouse-style family apartment with its spectacular views of the city (encouraging hubris, of course) so he can he buy out a controlling interest in the firm. But just as he is about to pull off the deal of a lifetime, a kidnapper takes a boy he wrongly thinks is Gondo's son, but is in fact the son of Gondo's heartbreakingly loyal and submissive chauffeur Aoki played by Yutaka Sada. Does Gondo now have to use the money he's borrowed as ransom cash to save the son of a servant? In Lee's film the shoe executive is now gigantic music-producer legend David King, played with grinning monarchical assurance by Washington. King beamingly surveys his New York realm from his near-super-rich balcony as the sun rises, and Lee shows this with the inspired musical accompaniment of Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' from Oklahoma. His wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) is a philanthropist supporting black causes, and his teen son Trey (older and cooler than Gondo's kid) is a talented basketball player. Every square millimetre of the wall-space is covered by high-end sports-related artworks or ultra rare memorabilia (reportedly from Lee's own collection), as well as magazine covers of David's face, unironically pointing up his massive wealth, prestige and impeccable taste. The awful news about the reported abduction of Trey turns out of course to be a bungling mistaken-identity: the culprit has accidentally taken Trey's best friend and David's godson Kyle (Elijah Wright) son of David's driver and family friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright, Elijah's dad in real life), an ex-con who is now a Muslim convert. In the original, there was a distinct class or caste distinction between Gondo and Aoki, however well-meaning and conflicted Gondo was. This isn't the case here: King is no snob and has a real love for Paul – but the basic dilemma is still there. Should David throw away his business plan and risk penury to save someone who isn't family? (This great music producer rages to his imaginary heroes in his private study: 'What would you do Stevie?' etc. He amusingly addresses that hypothetical question to James Brown – and perhaps James Brown's advice on this point might not exactly provide a Hollywood ending.) Lee shrewdly injects a new note of worldliness with the police's suspicion about the obvious possibility that Paul might himself have staged the abduction – though it is the racist white cop Detective Higgins (Dean Winters, Tina Fey's boyfriend in TV's 30 Rock) who has to say this out loud. In Kurosawa's film, the paying of the ransom on the train is a classic suspense sequence; Lee for his part makes great use of a New York subway train heading out to Yankee Stadium, crammed with baseball fans chanting 'Let's go Yankees' just as they did in Lee's 25th Hour. (I'd love to see Lee restage the baseball scene from Kurosawa's Stray Dog.) The police have put a GPS tracker in the bag with the cash, so the kidnapper and his team of stunt-riding accomplices on motor scooters (where did he get all these people?) must have somehow switched the money out of the trackable bag and it's not immediately clear how they did that. But who is the bad guy? Suspicion falls on the greedy, sexist (but undoubtedly kind of cool) young rapper played by A$AP Rocky. And Lee contrives a great rap-battle-style face off between him and David. This is a big, muscular picture which aspires to the crowd-pleasing athleticism of Spike Lee's sports icons; it's very enjoyable and there's a great turn from Washington. Highest 2 Lowest screened at the Cannes film festival.
