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The Shaft reboot lands an official release date

Photo credit: Moviestore Collection / Rex Shutterstock
Photo credit: Moviestore Collection / Rex Shutterstock

From Digital Spy

It's all systems go for the Shaft reboot film, as Warner Bros has officially scheduled in a release date for Shaft.

Yes, according to Deadline, if you want to be among the first to see what the Shaft family are up to in the latest instalment, you should be keeping June 14, 2019 clear – which is more than enugh notice to get those day-off requests in now.

The project was first announced back in 2015 and Fantastic Four director Tim Story (from the 2005 and 2007 films) signed on to direct the film earlier this year, but we haven't had a huge amount of information about it beyond that.

Photo credit: Eli Reed/Paramount Pictures Corp. via Online USA / Getty
Photo credit: Eli Reed/Paramount Pictures Corp. via Online USA / Getty

[Richard Roundtree in 2000's Shaft]

The original Shaft was released in 1971 and followed the adventures of the effortlessly cool John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), who is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

In this new version, however, Deadline reports that the film will follow a nerdy millennial FBI analyst as he launches his own investigation when his friend dies under suspicious circumstances, reluctantly enlisting help from his estranged father - the legendary, stuck-in-the-'80s-but-still-cool-as-hell John Shaft – to do so.

Richard Roundtree is also rumoured to reprise his iconic role as John Shaft in the new film, while Samuel L Jackson will return to his John Shaft role from the 2000 reboot, in which he played Roundtree's character's nephew, also called John Shaft.

Photo credit: Eli Reed/Paramount Pictures Corp. via Online USA / Getty
Photo credit: Eli Reed/Paramount Pictures Corp. via Online USA / Getty

[Samuel L Jackson in 2000's Shaft]

Independence Day: Resurgence actor Jessie T Usher will join the franchise in the rebooted film as John Shaft II's son.

Tim Story is directing the film from a script by Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow.


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