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Spike Lee On Final Film With Denzel Washington: ‘It’s Been a Blessing’

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker says Washington has been ‘taking about retirement.’

After the upcoming crime thriller ‘Highest 2 Lowest,’ it might be a wrap for longtime collaborators Denzel Washington and Spike Lee.

The Academy Award winners have worked on a total of five movies together, including ‘Malcolm X,’ ‘Mo’ Betta Blues,’ ‘He Got Game,’ and ‘Inside Man.’ But ‘Highest,’ which releases in theaters on August 25, 2025, could mark their final project, according to Lee.

“This is the fifth one we’ve done together,” the filmmaker said during the film’s premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival this week, per The Guardian. “It has been a blessing, this body of work between us, doing films that people love. And I think this is it. He’s been talking about retirement. But five films together: that’s good, they stand up.”

But Washington, who received the honorary Palme d’Or award at Cannes, wants to continue working with Lee. “Spike is consistently Spike, and I love that about him,” Washington said in an interview published in the New York Times earlier this year. “And I love working with him, and I’d work with him again. I just like the way his brain works.”

Washington completes his ‘Othello’ run on Broadway in June, and will also star in the third ‘Black Panther.’

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