Spike Lee Toasts ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ at Cannes With THR and Threads

With his beloved New York Knicks leading its NBA playoffs matchup with the Boston Celtics after a 119-81 victory this weekend, Spike Lee doesn’t need a million reasons to raise a glass. But The Hollywood Reporter and Threads gave the veteran auteur one more by hosting an early evening celebration for his Cannes Film Festival selection Highest 2 Lowest at Hyde Beach by Campari on Sunday.

Set to make a triumphant return Monday to the Palais for the world premiere of his Apple Original feature in partnership with A24, Lee got buzz going early — in more ways than one thanks to cocktails by Campari — by turning up to the beach-set bash accompanied by his family, including wife Tonya Lewis Lee and their children Satchel and Jackson Lee.

The Lees turned up just before 6 p.m. to the party, where some of his collaborators were already on hand, including the film’s screenwriter Alan Fox, producers Jason Michael Berman and Jordan Moldo and executives from Apple and A24. But even before Lee touched down, his presence was visible thanks to plentiful copies of THR’s Cannes issue featuring Lee on the cover (with an interview by senior film editor Rebecca Keegan), complete with striking yellow and black spectacles. Hyde Beach by Campari was blanketed by the brand’s striking signature red. Digitized covers also featuring Lee’s face also added to the anticipation of his in-real-life arrival.

Highest 2 Lowest is a “reinterpretation,” per Lee’s own words, of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 police procedural High and Low. It stars frequent collaborator Denzel Washington as a music mogul who becomes the target of a ransom demand that forces him into a moral dilemma, between life and death. Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Wendell Pierce and Ilfenesh Hadera round out the cast. Hadera and Pierce also attended the bash, as did boldfaced names like Guillaume Thevenin, Diamant Blazi, Sally, Paola Locatelli, Mateo Sinet and Netflix’s Albert Tello, among others.

“This is my first time in Cannes,” Pierce told THR in the luxe Campari lounge. “I always said that I would come when I was part of a movie that was special, and this movie is very special.” In more ways than one. The veteran actor has worked with Lee before, dating back to his 1996 film Get on the Bus.

“Spike and I go all the way back to Brooklyn. I remember when he started: I lived in Fort Greene a block away from his office and I would see him on a regular basis,” Pierce explained. “I’m just so happy to be a part of his journey because I think he is emblematic of the American aesthetic of freedom within form. He understands how to honor technique and at the same time be as creative and expressive as he can be. So, for you guys here at The Hollywood Reporter to honor him that way, it marks his legacy.”

Pierce continued: “The fact that we’re here for his film on the lovely French Riviera, it shows you the more specific you are in your art, the more universal your message becomes. People can appreciate the work of Spike Lee, as specific as he is in all his films, it has universal appeal, and that’s reflected here on the Riviera and the Cannes Film Festival.” And that is yet another reason to raise a glass.