India, Aug. 14 -- It might surprise some movie fans, but Spike Lee's latest film, Highest 2 Lowest, Akira Kurosawa's High and Low, and an old 1962 TV episode all come from the same source material. The crime novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain. The novel came out in 1959 and is part of McBain's long-running 87th Precinct series. The stories are set in a made-up city and follow a group of detectives solving tough crimes.

Lee's film, which stars Denzel Washington, keeps the main idea from the book, a tense kidnapping and ransom, but updates it for today. The setting, the style, even the social themes feel modern, though the bones of the story are still there.

Kurosawa's classic 1963 High and Low also took inspiration from King's Ransom. He m...