New Line Cinema is working on a reboot of Shaft, drawing on the writing talents of Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and The Goldbergs’ Alex Barnow.
The original story followed the life of private detective John Shaft as he tried to find a missing girl in Harlem.
The film was part of a new genre referred to as Blaxploitation, stories which emphatically embraced black culture and personality on-screen,
Shaft achieved cult-classic status, even spawning an updated film-version starring Samuel L. Jackson in 2000.
Jackson played Shaft’s nephew in the John Singleton reboot.
This time, however, the story will be told with a little more comedy.
David Walker writes Shaft comic book series and recently penned a novel called Shaft’s Revenge. Walker is not a fan of New Line Cinema’s plans.
In an open letter posted online, Walker writes in part:
There are several valid reasons to back up the fact that taking the comedic approach is wrong. Let’s start with the reason that means the most in Hollywood—money. While comedies do well, the sort of comedy you’re likely to make does not have a good track record. Low Down Dirty Shame (1994) made $24 million, Undercover Brother (2002) made $39 million, and Bait (2000) made $15 million. There are, of course, exceptions, like the Bad Boys movies, which made just under $400 million collectively, but c’mon…can you really conjure the magic of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and hope for that kind of hit? I don’t think so.