Spike Lee announced that his new film “Highst 2 Plus Lowst” will be presented at first at the Cannes Film Festival.
A little more than an hour after the festival revealed its programming – which did not include “the highest 2 lower” – the legendary director went to Instagram to announce the news himself.
“Good day. Hello.
The highest “highest” of Lee – a reimagination of the criminal thriller of Akira Kurosawa in 1963 “High and Low” with Denzel Washington and from the original Apple and A24 films – was to be announced Thursday morning as part of Cannes’ programming. However, each year, there are some films which are later revealed in the party period.
In a humorous moment during the Thursday morning press, the artistic director of Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, said that someone sent him an SMS to say that he had forgotten a film – perhaps could have been Lee. Variety contacted the Cannes, A24 and Apple festival to comment.
This is not the first time that the famous director has skipped the weapon in terms of ads. In Cannes in 2021, when Lee was president of the jury, he accidentally read the name of the winner of Palme d’Or – “titanium” – at the start of the award ceremony rather than at the end, leading to confusion and, finally, to a slightly less suspense final.
“I have no excuse, I have messed up,” he said at the press conference afterwards. “I am a big fan of sport. It’s like the guy at the end of the match in the line of fault, he is missing the frank throw, or a guy is missing a kick.” In this case, the director of “titanium” Julia Ducournau will also be present this year with her “Alpha” follow -up.
Lee joins a stacked program for Cannes this year, which includes Wes Anderson films, Richard Linklater, Ari Aster and Kelly Reichardt in competition. Although Lee said that “the highest 2 below” is out of competition, which means that it will not be eligible for the prestigious Palme d’Or, it is in good company in the section alongside the “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and the “private life” of Rebecca Zlotowski with Jodie Foster.
“The highest 2 lower” also features Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice and Asap Rocky. The details of the intrigue were kept under the Wraps, but like “High and Low” by Kurosawa, it was vaguely based on the novel by Ed McBain in 1959 “King’s Ransom”, who follows a rich man forced to choose between obtaining a personal ambition or saving the life of a kidnapped child.
Alex Ritman contributed to this report.
