Spike Lee shares first look at A$AP Rocky in Highest 2 Lowest
Highest 2 Lowest is Lee's first feature in five years.
Screenshot: TNT/YouTube
Spike Lee just shared a first look at Highest 2 Lowest to tide people over until his next joint‘s presumed Cannes debut in May. The director celebrated film star A$AP Rocky’s not guilty verdict earlier this week, ironically, by posting a photo of him in an orange prison jumpsuit. Luckily for Rocky (real name Rakim Mayers), this one is fictional. “Thanks To The Judge And Jury For The NOT GUILTY VERDICT. A$AP And DENZEL WASHINGTON Are [13 fire emojis] In HIGHEST 2 LOWEST,” Lee posted on Instagram just 24 hours after the verdict was revealed. A$AP Rocky was on trial for two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm stemming from a 2021 incident.
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Highest 2 Lowest—Lee’s first feature since 2020’s Da 5 Bloods—is a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller High And Low. A$AP leads the ensemble as Yung Felon, per IndieWire. He’ll be joined by frequent Lee collaborator Denzel Washington for the actor’s fifth film with the director. Washington and Lee previously worked together on Inside Man (2006), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), and He Got Game (1998). While it’s been nearly 20 years since the pair shared a project, Washington said it “felt like we picked up where we left off” in an interview with The New York Times. “Spike is consistently Spike, and I love that about him… I just like the way his brain works,” he shared. Highest 2 Lowest will also feature Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Ice Spice.
While primarily known for his music career, A$AP Rocky is pulling a Charli xcx and carving out a nice slate of acting projects. The rapper made his onscreen debut in 2015’s Dope and went on to appear in Zoolander 2, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (in both as himself), and the 2018 legal drama Monster. In addition to Highest 2 Lowest, he also appeared this year in A24’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which just had its premiere at Sundance.
While there isn’t an official premiere date for the rest of us yet, someone exciting has already seen Highest 2 Lowest. Lee posted three weeks ago that he had the “honor and pleasure” of screening the film for Martin Scorsese, who “Gushed About,Denzel’s Magnificent Acting,Matty Libatique’s ,Cinematography,Barry Brown’s Editing And My Direction.”
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