Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Spike Lee are reuniting to make the English-language adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The movie comes from Apple and A24's partnership. The latter will release the High and Low remake in cinemas before it streamed globally on Apple TV+.

The film is written by Allan Fox and Lee and is set to be a reinterpretation of Kurosawa's 1963 film. The Japanese movie was loosely based on Evan Hunter's 1959 novel King's Ransom.

Denzel Washinton and Spike Lee reunite through Akira Kurosawa

The story follows Kingo Gondo, a board member of a Japanese company who has to make a decision between using his wealth to gain the upper hand in a corporate takeover and lending his chauffeur the money to ransom his kidnapped son. Adding to the complexity of Gondo's decision is that his chauffeur's son was mistakenly kidnapped; the target was Gondo's son.

The original film starred frequent Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune as the executive and Tatsuya Nakadai as the police inspector charged with solving the case.

The English-language remake is set to start filming in March with Lee directing and Washington most likely playing Mifune's role. This will mark Lee and Washington's fifth project together. Their most recent film was 2006's Inside Man. Their first was 1990's Mo' Better Blue, followed by 1992's Malcolm X where Washington earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role and 1998's He Got Game.

Lee will also serve as executive producer through his production company, 40 Acres And A Mult Filmworks. High and Low will be his first film since 2020's Da 5 Bloods, starring Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors and Delroy Lindo. The director won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman.

Washington most recently starred in last year's Equalizer 3, which earned $191 million globally. In 2021, he starred in Apple and A24's The Tragedy of Macbeth for which he was nominated an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. The actor will next be seen in Ridley Scott's Gladiator 2 which is currently in post-production and a film about Hannibal.

Fox wrote the 2019 play Safe Space which is set for a film adaptation at Sony Pictures. His other film credit is Queen of the Stoned Age, which will star Dakota Johnson.