High and Low is a fantastic Kurosawa film. It stands the test of time and doesn't need to be remade. I'm glad that Mamet is writing it, but Nichols is overrated. He has made two great films in his career... and those were in the late 60s.

Mamet has done some good screenplay adaptations for other directors in the past, notably The Verdict, but I'm just not sure a remake is necessary (though I admit that I'd be pressed to find a time when I thought a remake actually was necessary... Scorsese's Cape Fear wasn't "necessary" but is probably the best in my mind, in terms of actually improving on or trying to legitimately do something new or interesting with a remake).

High and Low is maybe my favorite Kurosawa / Mifune pairing and it's also probably the most accessible to a modern audience. Spike Lee's Inside Man reminded me a little bit of High and Low being a tense genre thriller with some social / political commentary.

This is an absolutely great movie. People should check it out and when you do, look for, what I think might be the first great use of a single image of color in an otherwise black and white movie (think the jacket in Schindler's List, etc.)

high & low is an absolute masterpiece. kurosawa's staging and use of widescreen is incredibly brilliant and almost unparalleled. while a remake could be interesting, considering the political/economic climate of today, it could never hold a candle to the original. go pick this flick up RIGHT NOW. you'll be glad you did.

Kurosawa films do not need to be remade, just re-watched.

It's lame that Hollywood wants to remake everything.

Americans can't even come up with their own stories anymore.

LOL. morons.

So when two great minds come together, they just forge a remake?

Awesome.

How the **** is a remake ever "necessary"?

you forgot to mention that mike nichols is responsible for a little film called 'the graduate.' should be an interesting remake.

Shoot me now.

Scorsese respects Kurosawa too much to make a predatory remake. I love Kurosawa more than just about anybody, and I'm really looking forward to see a Mamet-penned remake.

Quit being so melodramatic. Whether this movie sweeps the oscars or is a piece of crap won't change the fact that "High and Low" is a great movie. If you have no interest before you even know more than the most cursory details, then don't see it. It's not hard.

This is so full of fail.

Do yourself a service, and watch the original High and Low. It is a great film, and entirely undeserving of a remake. The very idea of a "modern update" is, I think, preposterous. The reason being that timeless films are, in fact, timeless. Does Rashomon get old just because the period is different? What about The Seven Samurai? Do either of those films need "Modern updates"? Of course not.

I'm with most of the other commenters when I say that I hope this project falls through.

@Matt Payte,

I think your faith in Scorsese is appropriate, but maybe less so for this project. Executive producer doesn't mean all too much. And it was written by Hannibal-era David Mamet, so who knows what that will mean. He's written some great things and some not-so-great things, with the latter usually being stuff that isn't his own property to begin with.

I thought Ron Howard's RANSOM was pretty much a remake of the first half of H&L, so why bother?

GRRR...

STOP REMAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kurosawa should not be remande... definitely replayed on the big screen maybe remastered but not remade let the classics stay classics...

I can lend you my laser disc if you want to see it. LOL! Seriously, I have this on laser freakin' disc. Oh for a while there I was SO ahead of the curve. Good movie though. Nice crime drama. It was my first non-samurai Kurosawa.

Maybe its about time Asian filmmakers started remaking crappy American films like Crystal Skull and the Star Wars prequels. And doing a better job which wouldn't be hard.

I wonder who would have the skill to play the lead actors?

In Hollywood today, especially with scorsese, it seems as though the same actors are used over and over again for major movies. I would love to see someone new or someone who's been out of the picture for a while star in this remake.

Unfortunately, though, I don't think that an American remake could capture the spectacle or feeling of the original film.

This film doesn't need to be remade. I'd like to see the original in all its glory back on the big screen without having to wait for the local art house cinema to get the reels.

I actually just watched this two nights ago and just dropped the Netflix envelope back in the mail just before logging online just now. I thought it was brilliant and personally I probably wouldn't bother to go see a remake, even with Mamet, Nichols, and Scorcese involved. Frankly, I doubt they'd be able to adhere to the original story with today's studios. Mifune isn't on screen all that much in the second half of the film. The studio would probably dictate that whoever the star is has to be a detective as well as a shoe company executive. I'm not totally against remakes. I'd probably Netflix it, but I doubt I'd see it in theaters unless word of mouth is amazing.

I also watched Kurosawa's "The Bad Sleep Well" a few nights ago, another Kurosawa and Mifune non-samurai movie, and I'd highly recommend that film to anyone checking out "High and Low."

"Maybe its about time Asian filmmakers started remaking crappy American films like Crystal Skull and the Star Wars prequels. And doing a better job which wouldn’t be hard."

lol, couldn't agree more.

@ Ian: You're right. But remember, the original (good) Star Wars wasn't much more than a re-hash of Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress. The prequels would be cool if redone as Samurai films, anyway.

It's not that this remake will be bad- just pointless. If it ain't broke...

High and Low is a top five Kurosawa movie for me, but I'll still be interested to see what happens in a remake. I agree that bad remakes don't take away from the original. I don't think anybody judged Yojimbo based on Last Man Standing. Plus, I think High and Low has potential to be a good remake (not as good as the original masterpiece), but not bad. Something like Ikiru (my personal favorite) might be an example of a film that simply wouldn't translate, but I think High and Low translates well to American film-making.

If it must be done it must be done well, and with respect to the source. The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) and Fistful of Dollars (Yojimbo) are proof that it can be done. We'll see...

Kurosawa was a master of the craft and these remakes are just pointless and unnecessary. When the original is already so good, why bother to make a new version of it?

HIGH AND LOW is a masterpiece and often does go unnoticed; i suppose most people watch Kurosawa for the jidai-geki, but HIGH AND LOW is amazing and has an ebb and flow of storytellng that is wonderful.

The first half plot turn regarding the kidnapped son is absolutely brutal and the moral implications arising were just emotionally grueling.

The 2nd half procedural was so meticulous and involving.

It's amazing that the movie is really 2 different movies, the first half and the second half and that it manages to work really well, blending the genres.

It's a definite must-see of the Kurosawa oeuvre. btw, THE BAD SLEEP WELL is perhaps my favorite of the modern Kurosawa and is painfully underwatched.

Having said all that, I think HIGH AND LOW would really work well as a remake. I'm against remakes (did the IKIRU project die? I hope so) and the side-branch-remake RANSOM (based on the same book) was such a lesser effort that it was painful.

In the right hands, i think it could work and have a bit more relevance to modern US audiences. I'd hate to see a bigname actor in the lead just for his name...

btw, one more item is that HIGH AND LOW is perhaps the best example of Kurosawa's camera use. His staging, his depth of field, etc. are all in full use; that along with Mifune's great performance as well as tone-perfect performances from all the 2ndary actors makes it a near-perfect movie....