Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft! Y'damn right! The coolest dude in the history of movies (Lando is a close second), who was first brought to the screen in 1971 by Gordon Parks and played famously by Richard Roundtree, is about to make a comeback courtesy of New Line Cinema.
A Shaft reboot is on the way and hopefully it pans out better than the last attempt. That would be John Singleton's film which came out way back in 2000 (!!!!) and starred Samuel L. Jackson as the nephew of the original John Shaft. So technically it was a sequel although clearly an attempt to reboot the franchise. It didn't work then, but maybe New Line and producer John Davis (Predator) have come up with a way to make the character relevant to today without compromising what made him cool in the first place. This is still pretty early on and nobody is attached to the iconic role yet. Whether this works is going to depend on who they cast. Pick the wrong guy and it's over before ever getting started.
And you know they will find a way to work Roundtree into the film in some way. He's been a part of every single Shaft movie (including a cameo in the Jackson-led film) and even the short-lived CBS TV series in 1973. [TheWrap]
