Spike Lee’s Music-Biz Crime Drama Will Star A$AP Rocky Alongside Ice Spice and Denzel Washington

Spike Lee‘s remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping drama High and Low will change the setting from the shoe industry to the far more glamorous music business — and A$AP Rocky will play “the main role,” Lee revealed to Deadline. Also starring in Highest 2 Lowest is Denzel Washington, who will play a successful businessman, a reimagined version of Toshiro Mifune’s part as a shoe-biz executive in the original.  

“In our film,” Lee told Deadline, “Denzel Washington is a music mogul with his own label and his reputation as the best ears in the business… This is not a remake, this is a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s great film.”

Ice Spice will also make her acting debut in the movie and has at least one scene with Washington. “I was so nervous because he’s a legend,” Ice told Rolling Stone in her recent cover story. “But he made me feel super comfortable, and it was a smooth shooting day.” For the rapper, the role is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. “I love movies,” she told Teen Vogue. “I always wanted to be a part of that.” 

The film will be Lee and Washington’s fifth collaboration, following Inside Man (2006), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), and He Got Game (1998). “I’m very blessed to have done five films together, he is arguably the best actor on the planet,” Lee said.

In September, A$AP released the single “Roby Rosary,” featuring J. Cole, from Don’t Be Dumb, which will be his first album since 2018. The album was originally set to come out in August but doesn’t currently have a release date. Last year, he told Dazed he felt the new music was his “best work yet… I want to leave expectations wide and open. I don’t want to tell you what to expect. I just want people to experience it how they do naturally.”

From Rolling Stone US.