High and Low: Jeffrey Wright joins Denzel Washington for Spike Lee’s Kurosawa remake

He may not have walked away with an Oscar this year, but Jeffrey Wright is hot off the acclaim of his Academy Award-nominated film American Fiction and has been reported by Deadline to be joining Denzel Washington for Spike Lee’s upcoming remake of the Akira Kurosawa film High and Low. The remake of the 1963 crime thriller will come from a joint production from Apple and A24 Films. It is not yet announced what role in the film that Wright will be portraying as of yet.

In addition to American Fiction, Wright also starred in the Oscar-nominated film Rustin for Netflix. He appeared in last year’s Asteroid City from Wes Anderson, who he also worked with on The French Dispatch. He would garner three Emmy nominations for his role as Bernard Lowe on HBO’s Westworld. And he would recently fill the shoes of Batman’s police ally, James Gordon, in Matt Reeves’ standalone Dark Knight film, The Batman, which stars Robert Pattinson in the titular role.

In Kurosawa’s High and Low, an executive of a Yokohama shoe company becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom. Details about Lee’s remake are scarce, though we know it will be an English-language reimagining of the original—details about how and if the plot will differ from Kurosawa’s classic crime drama remains a mystery. This will be Denzel’s fourth collaboration with Lee after the pair made the bank heist film Inside Man. Lee would also work with Denzel’s son, John David Washington, on his award-winning BlacKkKlansman.

Alan Fox and Lee wrote the screenplay for the High and Low remake, with A24, Escape Artists, and Mandalay Pictures handling development. Production kicks off in March, with Todd Black producing for Escape Artists and Jason Michael Berman for Mandalay Pictures. In addition to directing and co-writing High and Low, Lee will executive produce through his 40 Acres studio and A Mule Filmworks. Joining Lee as an executive producer is Peter Guber for Madalay Films, Matthew Lindner for Juniper Productions, Chris Brigham, and Katia Washington. Mandalay’s Jordan Moldo is co-producing. According to reports, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington began thinking about collaborating on another film project last spring. Still, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed any forward momentum.