New Denzel Washington Movie Breaks An 18-Year Drought After $185 Million Hit

Summary Denzel Washington's upcoming movie High and Low breaks a longstanding career drought.

The movie marks his reunion with director Spike Lee after collaborating four times between 1990 and 2006.

Both the star and the director have made multiple prominent movies in the intervening decade and a half.

Denzel Washington's upcoming movie High and Low is the end of a nearly two-decade drought for the star. The upcoming movie, which kicked off production in March 2024, is directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay he co-wrote with Alan Fox. It is a remake of the 1963 Japanese classic of the same name, which was directed by Kurosawa Akira and starred Mifune Toshirō as executive Gondo Kingo, who strives to protect himself and his family from a ruthless kidnapper.

The new Denzel Washington movie is the latest in a string of high-profile releases to feature the prominent actor. After first bursting onto the scene with a long-running role in the hit medical drama St. Elsewhere in the 1980s, he transitioned into becoming a bona fide movie star in titles such as The Mighty Quinn and Mississippi Masala. Since then, he has been best known as a performer in features and has in fact earned 10 Academy Award nominations, winning two.

Related Spike Lee's New Denzel Washington Movie Repeats A Surprising Move From A 33-Year-Old Romantic Drama Denzel Washington is starring in Spike Lee's remake of High and Low, and one of its casting choices is similar to one in Lee's 1991 romance film.

High And Low Is Denzel Washington & Spike Lee's First Movie Together Since Inside Man

The Actor And Director Frequently Collaborated Before 2006

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High and Low is set to be the first Denzel Washington and Spike Lee collaboration in 18 years since 2006's Inside Man. Before then, the duo were well known for their frequent collaborations after first working together on the 1990 romantic drama Mo' Better Blues. That title was one of the first features to star Washington after his stint playing Dr. Philip Chandler on St. Elsewhere ended after 137 episodes in 1988, and he worked with Lee consistently throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Below, see a breakdown of Washington's roles in Lee movies prior to this nearly two-decade hiatus:

Title Role Mo' Better Blues (1990) Bleek Gilliam Malcolm X (1992) Malcolm X He Got Game (1998) Jake Shuttlesworth Inside Man (2006) Detective Keith Frazier

High and Low will push Lee and Washington's number of collaborations to a total of five movies, matching the number of features that Washington has created with director Antoine Fuqua, his other frequent collaborator. After Fuqua directed Washington to his second Oscar win in 2001's Training Day, the pair later collaborated on The Equalizer, The Magnificent Seven, The Equalizer 2, and The Equalizer 3. With this Kurosawa remake, both of Washington's long-standing directorial counterparts will be on an even footing.

What Spike Lee & Denzel Washington Have Done Since Inside Man

Both Creatives Have Added To Their Long Resumes Since 2006

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Between Inside Man and High and Low, both Washington and Lee have been quite busy. In addition to directing movies such as Fences and A Journal for Jordan, Washington has earned five Oscar nominations since 2006, for Flight, Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq., and The Tragedy of Macbeth. Lee was likewise nominated three times for his movie BlackKklansman, though he has directed eight movies since 2006 including Da 5 Bloods and Chi-Raq in addition to helming music videos, directing commercials, and creating the two-season 2017 Netflix show She's Gotta Have It, based on his 1986 movie.