Shaft is a 2000 American action crime thriller film co-written, co-produced, and directed by John Singleton and starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role with Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Dan Hedaya, Busta Rhymes, Toni Collette and Richard Roundtree.

It received mixed to positive reviews on Metacritic, with the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes praising Jackson's charisma.

In 1998, called in to investigate the grievous assault of Trey Howard outside a restaurant, NYPD Detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr., the son of a wealthy real estate tycoon, after noticing blood on him.

Shaft notices an injured waitress, Diane Palmieri, eyeing Wade, and unsuccessfully tries to coax a statement from her.

While Wade is temporarily detained at police headquarters, Dominican drug lord Peoples Hernandez, whom Shaft previously arrested, befriends him.

Shaft searches for Diane with the help of friend and former colleague Detective Carmen Vasquez, but only locates her mother, Ann.

Disguised, Shaft and his former partner, Detective Luger, mug Wade of the money he gathered from selling the jewelry.

Roselli and Groves stake out Rassan's apartment but when Carmen arrives and starts asking questions, they shoot her in the chest.

Shaft assures Trey's mother Carla about the new trial conditions, however, when Wade arrives, she shoots him several times and is subsequently arrested for avenging her son.

[5] After crime films by Quentin Tarantino became popular in the 1990s, producer Scott Rudin took an interest in Shaft and suggested taking it to Paramount Pictures.

Rudin vetoed the idea of a father-son team-up and brought in Richard Price to do rewrites,[8] as he considered the original script to be too risque.

[4] Snipes, responding to rumors that he was passed over, said he turned down the role because of the script, which he felt did not respect black culture or the original film.

[12] With Jackson cast, the original Shaft was rewritten to be his uncle rather than his father to explain their smaller age gap.

[13] Jackson praised Price's ability to write police procedurals but did not like how long it took for Shaft to become a private eye.

Jackson refused to say some of the lines, believing them to be racially insensitive or untrue to the character, drawing Rudin's ire.

The 2019 release stars Jessie Usher as J.J. Shaft, an FBI agent and the son of Samuel L. Jackson's character.

[21] Unlike the 2000 film and the 1970s trilogy, the 2019 installment received mixed-to-negative reviews and failed at the box office.