Shaft | |
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Created by | Ernest Tidyman |
Original work | Shaft (1970) |
Years | 1970–present |
Print publications | |
Novel(s) | Shaft (1970) |
Films and television | |
Film(s) |
|
Television series | Shaft (1973–74) |
The Shaft franchise consists of five action-crime feature films and seven television films, centered on a family of African-American police detectives who all share the name John Shaft. The first three features may be described as blaxploitation films, the television film series is a mystery, and the fourth feature installment is a crime thriller. By contrast the fifth film installment, released to Netflix, is a satirical buddy-cop comedy. [1]
Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Story by | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shaft | July 2, 1971 | Gordon Parks | Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black | Joel Freeman | |
Shaft's Big Score! | June 8, 1972 | Ernest Tidyman | Ernest Tidyman and Roger Lewis | ||
Shaft in Africa | June 14, 1973 | John Guillermin | Stirling Silliphant | Roger Lewis | |
Shaft | June 16, 2000 | John Singleton | John Singleton & Shane Salerno | John Singleton & Shane Salerno and Richard Price | John Singleton and Scott Rudin |
Shaft | June 14, 2019 | Tim Story | Kenya Barris & Alex Barnow | Kenya Barris and John Davis |
John Shaft is a classy and suave African-American detective. He successfully fights local crime, including the leader of the black crime mob named Bumpy, his gang, and black nationals. The conflicting characters have to put aside their differences when they must defeat the white mafia, who kidnapped Bumpy's daughter in attempts to blackmail him.
When John Shaft finds out that a dead friend ran an illegal money laundering scheme out of the former's legitimate business and left $200,000 unaccounted for, he discovers the reason why he had suddenly found himself in the middle of a war between rival gangs. The thugs begin a war of taking over the territory that belonged to the deceased, as well as to get their hands on the missing two hundred grand. Shaft has all he can handle trying to track down the money and, at the same time, keep his friend's sister from the clutches of these dangerous groups.
John Shaft is persuaded to take on the faux identity of a native-speaking worker in Africa by threats of violence, the enticings of money, and the lure of a potential love interest in his tutor. While undercover he must help in completing a coup on a business that is smuggling immigrants into Europe, and then exploiting them. The villains, unfortunately for him, know he is coming.
New York City Police Detective John Shaft II, son of the 1970s cop, [lower-alpha 1] is the lead detective on a sensitive case when a young African-American is viciously beaten to death. After learning there was an eye-witness and upon further investigation, the man's friends lead Shaft on the trail of a man who was known to have racial prejudice, prior to the attack. The titular character confronts him and learns that he's Walter Wade Jr., the son of a wealthy real estate tycoon. He finds evidence that the perpetrator was at the location of the crime. The suspect is released on bail because of 'excessive force' from Shaft during his arrest, and flees the country. Two years later, Wade returns to the U.S. where Shaft arrests him for evading law enforcement. After the judge grants him bail, Shaft questions the magistrate's motives and intentions. He resigns from the police force and sets out to lock Wade away permanently. At the same time Wade fears that Shaft may find the witness before he does and hires a drug lord to find and kill her.
John Shaft III, also known as JJ, is a cyber security expert for the FBI who seeks out a different kind of expertise from his absentee father John Shaft II (and ultimately, grandfather John Shaft I) after his best friend's untimely death.
In discussing the film, director Tim Story stated, "...We’re going to definitely make sure the stakes in the world are real, and then you’ve got these characters who are dealing with kind of a father/son situation, we’re going to see them put a family back together." [2]
Series | Season | Episodes | First released | Last released | Executive producers | Network |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shaft | 1 | 7 | October 9, 1973 | February 19, 1974 | Allan Balter & William Read Woodfield | CBS |
Following the box office failure of Shaft in Africa, the studio moved the franchise to the small screen in 1973, with a television series ordered and released to CBS network. While attempting to build crossovers with another crime-drama, Hawkins , the series never garnered much success. Each episode features a different case and a different crime for the titular character to solve. The series was cancelled after one season, due to poor ratings. Richard Roundtree, who reprised his role from the theatrical feature films, has since expressed his distaste for the show and its contrasting message of "pro-police" compared to the feature films. [3] The episodes that were later re-edited and released as television movies, where given the titles including: Shaft and the Enforcers, Shaft and the Killing, Shaft and the Hit-Run, Shaft and the Kidnapping, Shaft and the Cop Killer, Shaft and the Capricorn Murders, and Shaft and the Murder Machine. The first four debuted in 1973, while the latter three released in 1974. [3]
The film series contains four main stars, with various key characters appearing in each individual movie. The following chart organizes the films' stars, arranged by film.
Character | Films | Television | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shaft (1971) | Shaft's Big Score! | Shaft in Africa | Shaft (2000) | Shaft (2019) | Shaft (1973–1974) | |
John Shaft | Richard Roundtree | |||||
John Shaft II | Samuel L. Jackson | |||||
John "JJ" Shaft III | Jessie T. Usher Jordan Preston Carter Y | |||||
Bumpy Jonas | Moses Gunn | |||||
Lt. Al Rossi | Angelo Gnazzo | Ed Barth | ||||
The Detective | Rudy Doucette | |||||
The Hood | Arnold Roberts | |||||
Laura Parks | Judie Stein | |||||
The Pit Boss | Nick Borgani | |||||
The Sportsman | Robert Strong | |||||
Lt. Vic Androzzi | Charles Cioffi | |||||
Ben Buford | Christopher St. John | |||||
Marcy Jonas | Sherri Brewer | |||||
Cal Asby | Robert Kya-Hill | |||||
Gus Mascola | Joseph Mascolo | |||||
Rita | Kathy Imrie | |||||
Johnny Kelly | Wally Taylor | |||||
Cpt. Bollin | Julius Harris | |||||
Arna Asby | Rosalind Miles | |||||
Emir Ramila | Cy Grant | |||||
A.V. Ramila | Avelio Falana | |||||
Col. Gondor | Marne Maitland | |||||
Son of the Ramilas | A.V. Falana | |||||
Peoples Hernandez | Jeffrey Wright | |||||
Det. Carmen Vasquez | Vanessa Williams | |||||
Rasaan | Trevor "Busta Rhymes" Smith, Jr. | |||||
Diane Palmieri | Toni Collette | |||||
Walter Wade, Jr. | Christian Bale | |||||
Det. Jack Roselli | Dan Hedaya | |||||
Det. Jimmy Groves | Ruben Santiago-Hudson | |||||
Carla Howard | Lynne Thigpen | |||||
Walter Wade, Sr. | Philip Bosco | |||||
Det. Luger | Lee Tergesen | |||||
Lt. Kearney | Daniel von Bargen | |||||
Lucifer Hernandez | Francisco "Coqui" Taveras | |||||
Sasha Arias | Alexandra Shipp Nyah Marie Johnson Y | |||||
Maya Babanikos | Regina Hall | |||||
Maj. Gary Cutworth | Matt Lauria | |||||
S.A. Vietti | Titus Welliver | |||||
Freddie P. | Cliff "Method Man" Smith | |||||
Pierro "Gordito" Carrera | Isaach de Bankolé | |||||
Karim Hassan | Avan Jogia Joey Mekyten Y | |||||
Bennie Rodriguez | Luna Lauren Vélez | |||||
Dominguez Rodriguez | Aaron Dominguez | |||||
Title | Composer(s) | Cinematographer(s) | Editor(s) | Production companies | Distributing company | Running time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shaft (1971) | Isaac Hayes & Johnny Allen | Urs Furrer | Hugh A. Robertson | Shaft Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 100 minutes |
Shaft's Big Score! | Gordon Parks | Harry Howard | 104 minutes | |||
Shaft in Africa | Johnny Pate | Marcel Grignon | Max Benedict | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Shaft Productions, Ltd. | 112 minutes | |
Shaft (The Series) | Michael Hugo & Keith C. Smith | Peter Kirby & George Folsey, Jr. | MGM Television | CBS Network | approx. 73 minutes each | |
Shaft (2000) | David Arnold | Donald E. Thorin | John Bloom & Antonia Van Drimmelen | Shaft Productions, Paramount Pictures, New Deal Productions, Scott Rudin Productions, Munich Film Partners & Company | Paramount Pictures | 99 minutes |
Shaft (2019) | Christopher Lennertz | Larry Blanford | Conrad Buff IV | New Line Cinema, Khalab Ink Society, Davis Entertainment, Netflix Original Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Digital Networks | Warner Bros. Pictures | 111 minutes |
Film | Release date | Box office gross | Box office ranking | Budget | Ref. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North America | Other territories | Worldwide | All time North America | All time worldwide | ||||
Shaft(1971) | July 2, 1971 | $12,121,618 | — | $12,121,618 | #4,476 | #5,704 | $500,000[ citation needed ] | [4] |
Shaft's Big Score! | June 8, 1972 | $10,000,000 | — | $10,000,000 | #4,875 | #6,204 | $1,978,000 | [5] |
Shaft in Africa | June 14, 1973 | $1,455,635 | $1,079,615 | $2,440,240 [lower-alpha 2] | — | — | $2,142,000 | [7] [6] |
Shaft(2000) | June 16, 2000 | $70,327,868 | $36,862,240 | $107,190,108 | #1,086 | #1,377 | $53,012,938 | [8] |
Shaft(2019) | June 14, 2019 | $21,360,215 | — | $21,360,215 | TBA | TBA | $30,000,000 | [9] |
Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore [10] [ better source needed ] |
---|---|---|---|
Shaft(1971) | 88% (40 reviews) [11] | 66 (10 reviews) [12] | — |
Shaft's Big Score! | 68% (11 reviews) [13] | — | — |
Shaft in Africa | 56% (9 reviews) [14] | — | — |
Shaft(2000) | 67% (115 reviews) [15] | 50 (33 reviews) [16] | A- |
Shaft(2019) | 31% (99 reviews) [17] | 40 (30 reviews) [18] | A |
A future descendant of John Shaft appears in the Cowboy Bebop episode "Mushroom Samba", voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka in the 1999 Japanese version and by Beau Billingslea in the 2001 English dub. According to writer/director Quentin Tarantino, the characters Broomhilda "Hildi" von Schaft and her husband Django Freeman in his 2012 film Django Unchained were written as the progenitors to the Shaft family line and direct ancestors of John Shaft. Tarantino stated that while the film isn't an official prequel to the series, his intention was that the characters have familial ties. [19]
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue including a pervasive use of profanity, and references to popular culture.
Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation crime action thriller film directed by Gordon Parks and written by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black. It is an adaptation of Tidyman's novel of the same name and is the first entry in the Shaft film series. The plot revolves around a private detective named John Shaft who is hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from the Italian mobsters who kidnapped her. The film stars Richard Roundtree as Shaft, alongside Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John and Lawrence Pressman.
Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime film written for the screen and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who smuggles money between the United States and Mexico. Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, and Robert De Niro appear in supporting roles.
Ernest Ralph Tidyman was an American author and screenwriter, best known for his novels featuring the African-American detective John Shaft. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film version of Shaft with John D. F. Black in 1971.
Shaft is a 2000 action crime thriller film directed, co-written, and co-produced 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 is a contemporary sequel to the 1971 Shaft film, in which Jackson plays the nephew of John Shaft. The film opened at the number-one position at the box office when it debuted June 16, 2000. It received mixed reviews on Metacritic, but the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes praises Jackson's charisma.
Richard Arnold Roundtree was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and four of its sequels, Shaft's Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), its 2000 sequel and its 2019 sequel, as well as the eponymous television series (1973–1974). He was also known for his features in several TV series, including Roots, Generations, and Desperate Housewives.
John Shaft is a fictional private investigator created by author/screenwriter Ernest Tidyman for the 1970 novel of the same name. He was portrayed by Richard Roundtree in the original 1971 film and in its four sequels—Shaft's Big Score!, Shaft in Africa, Shaft and Shaft —as well as in the seven 1973–74 Shaft television films. Samuel L. Jackson portrayed his son, named John Shaft II, in Shaft (2000) and Shaft (2019), and Jessie Usher portrayed the character's grandson in Shaft (2019). The blurb on the paperback on which the original film is based states Shaft is "Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt."
Shaft in Africa is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by John Guillermin, and the third film of the Shaft series, starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay. The film's budget was $1.5 million, but the film was a box office flop, grossing just $1 million. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer quickly sold the property to television, but the television series was cancelled after just seven episodes.
Shaft's Big Score! is a 1972 American blaxploitation action-crime film starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. It is the second entry in the Shaft film series, with both director Gordon Parks and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman reprising their roles from the first film. Moses Gunn and Drew Bundini Brown also return from the previous film, alongside new appearances from acting veterans Joseph Mascolo, Julius Harris and Joe Santos. Composer Isaac Hayes turned down an offer to score the film, so Parks, also a musician, composed and performed the score himself.
Freebie and the Bean is a 1974 American buddy cop black comedy action film starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, and directed by Richard Rush. The film follows two offbeat police detectives who wreak havoc in San Francisco attempting to bring down an organized crime boss. The film, which had been originally scripted as a serious crime drama, morphed into what is now known as the "buddy-cop" genre due to the bantering, improvisational nature of the acting by Caan and Arkin. Reportedly, by the end of filming, both actors were confused by the purpose of the movie, not knowing that they had stumbled into a successful character formula. The movie was popular enough to spawn various other successful movie franchises such as, Lethal Weapon, 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop. Loretta Swit and Valerie Harper appeared in support roles.
Shaft is a television series that aired along with Hawkins during 1973–74 television season on The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies. Broadcast every third week, the series is a follow-up continuation of the three feature films that preceded its release. Starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft, it serves as the fourth installment overall in the Shaft franchise. Ed Barth costars as Al Rossi.
Tenafly is a crime-drama series starring James McEachin that was part of The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie wheel for the 1973-74 season. It was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, the creators of popular mystery television shows such as Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. It was the one of the first television series that season to feature an African-American character as the protagonist. Due to low ratings, NBC removed Tenafly from the wheel when it moved the mid-week Mystery Movie block to Tuesdays in January 1974.
Detroit 9000 is a 1973 American action film directed by Arthur Marks from a screenplay by Orville H. Hampton. Originally marketed as a blaxploitation film, it had a resurgence on video 25 years later.
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s, after the demand of the Black Panthers for black artists to reclaim the power and rights to their image from the UCLA, and the new rating system within Hollywood allowed up and coming black film makers and actors to create black films for black audiences. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. After the race films of the 1940s and 1960s, the genre emerged as one of the first in which black characters and communities were protagonists, rather than sidekicks, supportive characters, or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.
Quentin Tarantino is an American filmmaker who has directed ten films. He first began his career in the 1980s by directing and writing Love Birds In Bondage and writing, directing and starring in the black-and-white My Best Friend's Birthday, a partially lost amateur short film which was never officially released. He impersonated musician Elvis Presley in a small role in the sitcom The Golden Girls (1988), and briefly appeared in Eddie Presley (1992). As an independent filmmaker, he directed, wrote, and appeared in the violent crime thriller Reservoir Dogs (1992), which tells the story of six strangers brought together for a jewelry heist. Proving to be Tarantino's breakthrough film, it was named the greatest independent film of all time by Empire. Tarantino's screenplay for Tony Scott's True Romance (1993) was nominated for a Saturn Award. Also in 1993, he served as an executive producer for Killing Zoe and wrote two other films.
Django Unchained is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson in supporting roles. Set in the Old West and Antebellum South, it is a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to spaghetti Westerns, in particular the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci. The story follows a slave who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his wife.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is an American police procedural comedy television series that aired on Fox, and later on NBC, from September 17, 2013 to September 16, 2021, for eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan Goor and Michael Schur, it revolves around seven New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives who are adjusting to life under their new commanding officer, the serious and stern Captain Raymond Holt. Featuring an ensemble cast headed by Braugher and Andy Samberg, it also stars Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti, Dirk Blocker, and Joel McKinnon Miller.
The Big Score is a 1983 American crime drama film directed by Fred Williamson. The film has music composed by Jay Chattaway.
Small Town Crime is a 2017 American neo-noir thriller film directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms. It stars John Hawkes as an alcoholic ex-cop who discovers a woman left for dead on the side of a road and finds himself compelled to locate the killer. As he investigates further, he encounters several shady characters and inadvertently puts his family in danger. It also stars Anthony Anderson, Clifton Collins Jr., Michael Vartan, Caity Lotz, James Lafferty, Robert Forster and Octavia Spencer.
Shaft is a 2019 American action comedy film directed by Tim Story and written by Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall, and Richard Roundtree. It is the fifth film in the Shaft series, a direct sequel to the 2000 film with the same title and was also Roundtree's final portrayal of the original eponymous character John Shaft Sr. before his death in 2023.
Production Budget: $30,000,000