A$AP Rocky will star alongside Denzel Washington and Ice Spice in Spike Lee‘s upcoming movie Highest 2 Lowest.
The Apple TV+ film – a loose adaptation of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa thriller High And Low – is due for release in summer 2025, with a release date yet to be confirmed.
Lee, whose last film was 2020’s Da 5 Bloods, revealed more about the film with Deadline.
High And Low starred Toshiro Mifune as a shoe manufacturing executive who ends up in a tense race against time to save his son from a kidnapper. Lee revealed that Highest 2 Lowest will feature Washington in the lead role – this time, as a “music mogul with his own label and his reputation as the best ears in the business.”
This will mark the fifth time Lee and Washington are working together, following 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues, 1992’s Malcolm X, 1998’s He Got Game, and 2006’s Inside Man.
Lee revealed that Rocky also has “the main role” in the film alongside Spice. Rocky is also set to star in upcoming A24 drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – he made his big screen debut in 2015’s Dope. Spice, on the other hand, marks Highest 2 Lowest as her first role in a feature film.
Aside from film, Rocky has been busy working on his long-awaited fourth studio album. In August, the rapper explained that the delays are because of unauthorised leaks and trouble clearing samples.
Most recently, Washington starred in Gladiator 2, which has gone on to enjoy modest success at the box office alongside Wicked.
In the Deadline interview, Lee praised Washington’s performance in the film – he played Macrinus, a former slave-turned-slave master and arms dealer. The director thinks Washington’s chances at the 2025 Oscars are good: “He’s definitely getting nominated,” said Lee.
In NME‘s review of Gladiator 2, which praised Washington’s performance as “deliciously campy”, Alex Flood wrote: “If you loved Gladiator, it’s odds-on you’ll enjoy this too. It’s got all of the same exciting bits – swordfighting, rousing speeches, nasty poshos getting what they deserve. The problem is that’s all it gives you.”
“You want to feel like you’re watching Maximus lift off his helmet and deliver that iconic monologue for the first time again. You want the thrill of a core memory being unlocked. You want to know you’ll be quoting Mescal’s lines to your mates in the pub for the next 10 years.”
“Gladiator 2, piously respectful as it is, can only offer a faded memory of that experience. There was a dream that was Rome – and this is kind of it.”
