Spike Lee Believes Upcoming Movie with Denzel Washington Could Be Their Last Collaboration

Published: May 20, 2025

Spike Lee thinks his new movie, Highest 2 Lowest, with longtime collaborator Denzel Washington may be their last on-screen project together.

After Highest 2 Lowest made its world premiere out of competition on Monday, Lee told reporters during a press conference at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, May 20 that his and Washington's collaboration may end with five movies together.

"It's been a blessing to have this body of work of us doing films that the people love, so it's a blessing, again. I think this is it — five," the director said.

Washington, 70, was not in attendance, having returned to New York City for his performances of Othello on Broadway after receiving a surprise honorary Palme d'Or at the Highest 2 Lowest premiere.

"He's been talking about retirement, even though he just did another deal," Lee added of the actor. "The five films together, you know, they stand up. Malcolm X, I mean, what he did with that film, it's amazing."

Washington and Lee teamed up for the fifth time in their careers for Highest 2 Lowest, their first collaboration since the 2006 heist thriller Inside Man.

Their new movie is a "reinterpretation" of the famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's own 1963 crime thriller, High and Low, "now played out on the mean streets of modern-day New York City," according to a synopsis for the film.

It tells the story of "a titan music mogul widely known as having the 'best ears in the business,' " who becomes the target of a ransom plot and subsequently "jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma."

The movie also stars A$AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright, and Ilfenesh Hadera.

in select theaters on Aug. 22 before streaming on Apple TV+ starting Sept. 5.