Trailer released for Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest”
The newest Spike Lee Joint, “Highest 2 Lowest,” has just released its official trailer, very soon before its theatrical release date of August 15th and Apple TV+ release date of September 5th.
The cast includes Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, and Ice Spice. Washington plays a music mogul who is the target of a ransom plot, leaving him caught up in “a life-or-death moral dilemma.” The film, which originally debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, is a modern reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film noir “High and Low,” where instead of the movie following a businessman in Japanese society, it takes place on the streets of New York in a present-day setting. The Kurosawa film is loosely based off of the Ed McBain (AKA Evan Hunter) novel King’s Ransom, and you can see the novel’s presence in this reimagining of a reimagining with the book’s main character being named Doug King and Denzel Washington’s character in “Highest 2 Lowest” being named David King.
The film is produced by Spike Lee’s production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, and is distributed by A24 and Apple TV+. The trailer is short and sweet, less than a minute long, not following the recent trend of three minute long trailers seeming to give away more than they need to.
The fact that “Highest 2 Lowest” will be released both in theaters and on streaming, having a few weeks in theaters rather than being put straight to a streaming platform, is a thoughtful decision for appealing to as many audiences as possible. The theatrical release if for the moviegoers and film buffs who’ve been anticipating a new Spike Lee Joint, the ones who feel an urgent need to check it out, while the release on Apple TV+ a few weeks later will be for those who like to watch movies at home, or who were interested in the movie but didn’t quite get around to seeing it. This is Spike Lee’s first film since 2020, and hopefully the five year wait will be worth it.
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