Spike Lee’s new film Highest 2 Lowest released its first trailer Monday, revealing Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky in a tense ransom drama set inside New York’s music industry and hitting theaters August 15 before streaming on Apple TV+ September 5. The project reunites Washington and Lee for the first time since 2006’s Inside Man and reimagines Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller High and Low through a hip-hop lens, with A24 and Apple Original Films co-financing.
Washington portrays David King, a legendary label chief whose son is abducted; Rocky’s Yung Felon demands a precisely calculated $17.5 million payoff, a figure teased in the trailer’s opening monologue. Early footage shows Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and Ilfenesh Hadera orbiting King’s recording-studio empire, while commentators point to bold streetwear, gold headphones, and diamond watches that double as symbols of status and threat.
Apple’s synopsis lists a 133-minute running time and an R rating for language and violence. Rocky produced original music for the soundtrack, previewing a cut alongside the trailer after a Lollapalooza performance last weekend.
The film premiered out of competition at Cannes in May, where Washington and Rocky walked the red carpet and critics welcomed Lee’s decision to shift Kurosawa’s moral dilemma to contemporary Harlem. Industry watchers note that this marks Lee and Washington’s fifth collaboration—following Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, and Inside Man—a partnership Lee celebrated online with the phrase “The D N Lee combo is 5 for 5.”
Highest 2 Lowest enters a crowded late-summer slate yet holds exclusive IMAX bookings for its opening week, strengthened by A24’s distribution pact and Apple’s marketing push across Major League Soccer broadcasts. Digital platforms already list the title, and fan forums show pre-orders for a September soundtrack vinyl, signaling confidence in the picture’s commercial pull weeks before release.
