Reuniting with his longtime leading man Denzel Washington and remaking an Akira Kurosawa crime classic, Lee captures energy and moral complexity, sometimes wildly.

The strangest development saga of any movie this summer includes A-list writers and directors (Mamet, Scorsese) coming and going, and studios spending millions trying to crack the script. Then, a young producer and first-time screenwriter cracked the code and got Denzel Washington's attention.

Spike Lee's new film "Highest 2 Lowest" stars Denzel Washington as a record mogul whose life is upended by a kidnapping.

"He was in his 80s, but he had more energy than I that day," the filmmaker says of the legendary musician, who died Aug. 6 at 88.

Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, and a 1962 episode of the American TV show 87th Precinct all come from the same source