David Walker writes Dynamite Entertainment’s Shaft comic and has a forthcoming novel, Shaft’s Revenge, that’s the only one since the ’70s to be sanctioned by Shaft creator Ernest Tidyman’s estate. So when Walker expresses an opinion on Shaft, you kind of sit up and listen—and he doesn’t like the sound of the new movie at all.
His issue with the upcoming film, helmed by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and The Goldbergs writer Alex Barnow, is that it’s apparently going to “have a comedic tone”. In an open letter on his website, Walker responded to fans who asked what he thought of the reboot by saying,
As it is, with the recent announcement that the creator of Black-ish has been hired, and that a comedic approach is going to be taken, it is clear to me that New Line is more interested in shitting the bed, than making a good Shaft movie.
Walker went on to criticize the box office potential of such a film, citing other films like Low Down Dirty Shame, Bait, and Undercover Brother. But at the end of the day, for Walker, it’s not about how the movie performs but how such an iconic black hero is treated when there are so few to go around. The letter goes on to say,
Not since Ernest Tidyman created John Shaft back in 1970 has there been more of a need for someone just like him. And yet your solution is to take the most iconic hero in the history of black popular culture—something that is missing from the cinematic landscape right now—and turn him into some kind of comedic figure. Congratulations for your forward thinking, New Line and Mr. Davis. Because God knows that what black people—as well as the rest of America—needs right now is ANOTHER black man cracking jokes to distract us from all that ails us. We can leave the superheroics to the white guys, but the black hero can only be heroic if he is wrapped in a comedic package.
He concluded by saying they have no concept of John Shaft as a character or why he’s important to so many people, and “If you decide you want to make a serious attempt at producing a good Shaft movie—one that makes money and launches a viable franchise—you know how to find me.”
(via THR)
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