A mogul finds himself faced with a life-or-death moral dilemma in Director Spike Lee’s drama, Highest 2 Lowest.

In his reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 film High and Low, Lee’s film finds music titan David King targeted by a ransom plot when he is on the verge of saving his flagging empire.

On August 17, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Lee discussed the making of Highest 2 Lowest during a Q&A moderated by Director Jim Jarmusch (Father Mother Sister Brother).

During the conversation, Lee revealed how he decided to reunite with actor Denzel Washington for their fifth feature collaboration and the advantages that come with their prior working relationship.

“It ended up in Denzel’s hands. He called me up out of nowhere and said, ‘I'm sending you the script FedEx.’ I said, ‘Alright’ and before long, I knew I was doing it. [Our last collaboration] Inside Man was 19-20 years ago. I didn't even know that until a journalist pointed it out. Denzel and I… the first day of set was like the final day of Inside Man. We didn't have to go through learning each other and that bullshit. We were just, ‘Let's go.’”

In addition to Highest 2 Lowest, Lee has more than 80 directorial credits including the feature films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Miracle at St. Anna, Da 5 Bloods; the feature documentary 4 Little Girls; the documentary mini-series If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise; the pilot episode of the series Shark; and episodes of the series She’s Gotta Have It, based on his feature film of the same name. His 2018 feature, BlacKkKlansman, earned Lee a DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. He also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for his 2006 documentary mini-series, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Considered one of the most influential filmmakers in contemporary cinema, Lee received the Guild’s highest tribute, the Lifetime Achievement Award at 74th Annual DGA Awards in 2022. He had previously been awarded at the DGA Honors in 2002.

Lee has been a member of the Guild since 1997.