Spike Lee and Denzel Washington Partner for New Reinterpretation of a Kurosawa Film

Kurosawa's 1963 crime thriller follows an executive of a Yokohama shoe company who becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur's son gets kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom.

The original, based on the novel by Evan Hunter, starred Toshirô Mifune, Kyôko Kagawa and Tatsuya Nakadai and is currently ranked #86 on IMDb's Top 250 Movies list.

The film won multiple prestigious awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 1964 and the Golden Lion at the 1963 Venice Film Festival.

Now, Spike Lee steps in to add his unique twist.

Developed and produced by A24, the English-language reinterpretation will get a theatrical release by the indie production company before a global launch on AppleTV+.

Alan Fox collaborates with Spike Lee on the screenplay, and the film will be produced by Escape Artists' Todd Black and Mandalay Pictures' Jason Michael Berman.

Lee will also serve as executive producer alongside Peter Guber from Mandalay Pictures and Matthew Lindner, Chris Brigham and Katia Washington for Juniper Productions.

High and Low is set to begin filming in March.