Jeffrey Wright Joins Denzel Washington In Spike Lee Film, ‘High And Low’

Jeffrey Wright has been cast in Spike Lee’s new film, High And Low. Deadline reports that the acclaimed actor will join Denzel Washington and Ilfenesh Hadera in the crime thriller.

The movie will be created for Apple and A24 and is an English-language reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s movie of the same name. Kurosawa’s original film was based on Evan Hunter’s (Ed McBain) 1959 novel, King’s Ransom.

High and Low follows an executive who became the victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son mistakenly gets kidnapped. However, it’s currently unclear how close or far from the source material Spike Lee would base his movie on. 

The publication details that Spike Lee’s High and Low will be developed and produced by A24. Todd Black and Jason Michael Berman will produce High and Low for Escape Artists and Mandalay Pictures. Alan Fox and Spike Lee will serve as the picture’s scribes. The film is scheduled to have a theatrical run before ultimately finding a home on Apple TV+.

Elsewhere on the cast, Denzel Washington seems to be gearing up to have a busy couple of years. The legendary actor is set to return to Broadway for a revival of William Shakespeare’s Othello. Washington will hit the stage alongside Jake Gyllenhaal. The Kenny Leon-led production will open in Spring 2025 at Shubert Theatre. The Mount Vernon native will take up the leading role as Othello, while Gyllenhaal will be his foil in the character Iago.

For those unfamiliar with the Shakespearean work, the plot goes a little something like this. Iago becomes enraged after being overlooked for yet another promotion in the military. He then begins plotting revenge against his general and the Moor of Venice, Othello. he concocts a plot and convinces Othello to question his wife, Desdemona, about her alleged infidelities. Othello becomes incredibly jealous, so jealous that he murders his wife and commits suicide. For what it’s worth, Othello does discover that Iago was behind the rumor before he “unalived” himself. Classic Shakespearean tragedy.

New York Times reports that the last Broadway production of Othello was in 1982. James Earl Jones and the late Christopher Plummer starred as Othello and Iago, respectively.

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