Director Mike "Carnal Knowledge" Nichols will helm a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s "High and Low" for Miramax, written by David "Glengarry" Mamet and produced by Scott Rudin.
Executive producer is Martin Scorsese, who originally commissioned Mamet to write the screenplay in 1999.
Nichols and Rudin worked together previously on the director’s 2004 release "Closer" and the 1991 Harrison Ford-starrer "Regarding Henry.”"High and Low", aka "Heaven And Hell", is 1963 film directed by Akira Kurosawa, loosely based on "King's Ransom", an 87th Precinct police procedural by author Evan Hunter under the pseudonym 'Ed McBain'.
Set in 2 acts, the first follows executive 'Kingo Gondo' (Toshirō Mifune) who mortgages his savings to stage a leveraged buyout and gain control of a company called 'National Shoes', with the intent of keeping the company out of the hands of its other executives.
When his son is kidnapped and Gondo is prepared to pay the ransom, he learns the kidnappers have mistakenly abducted the child of his chauffeur instead of his own son.
Forced between paying the kidnappers or complete the company buyout, he decides to pay the ransom, making him into a national hero while the National Shoe Company is vilified and boycotted.
The second act follows police procedure as they put together clues to find the ransom money and the kidnapper. It is revealed that the main kidnapper is in fact a medical intern at a nearby hospital, who hates Gondo, stemming from jealousy.
As the kidnapper gets rid of his accomplices by causing them to overdose on drugs, a detective lures him out of hiding as Gondo and the kidnapper finally meet face to face...
