After 35 Years In The Making, Spike Lee’s ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ Finally To Hit Theaters

The latest movie by the film-maker Spike Lee with Denzel Washington in the main role cast, Highest 2 Lowest, has recently got to the cinemas, yet its path was very not easy. Based on a reinterpretation of a 1963 film High and Low directed by Akira Kurosawa, the film took an excessive 35 years to progress to different stages of development. It is an extraordinary saga of a film that languished in the hands of one director after another, studio to studio, screenwriter to screenwriter and emerged as an infamous example of film development in “development hell.”

That controversial project, development of which started at the end of 1990s, and consisted of unsuccessful starts and frozen work proved once again how difficult it can be to do what it takes to transform a cinematography masterpiece into something new and popular among a new generation.

Decades of False Starts and Shifting Rights

Early in the 1990s the idea of an American remake of High and Low was first developed with different creative teams assigned to the project over the years. This involved Goliaths such as director Martin Scorsese and writer David Mamet but the project never really picked any steam. The challenges involved in development were quite several such as how to come up with a new approach to the subject material and make them feel relatable to the modern audiences.

Kurosawa film rights also turned out to be a significant obstacle and the film grew amid various Disney-owned labels with the rights to the movie expiring. This legal and creative bog did not make the film see the light of day. Afterwards, the movie producer, Jason Michael Berman, had to extend the rights with the Kurosawa estate, and it took him three years to do this deal.

The Stars Align: A New Script and a Director’s Vision

The turning point was reached when a new residence was found by the project at A24 and Apple studios. A change of direction proved to be made when the screenwriter Alan Fox was brought on board, who developed a script that appealed both to Denzel Washington and Spike Lee. This element of creative team was what opened the potential of the project. The two had previously worked together in Inside Man (2006) and at last joined on the fifth film together.

It is also the first time the pair has done a film since Lee had developed a clear vision of a neo-noir crime thriller done in the modern era of New York City, and Washington was able to bring his presence as the lead actor to the table the film was finally able to transition out of an idea long stagnating into a finished product and proved that with the right team in place nothing could get a film off the ground once the right ingredients are there talent and determination both, and it

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