- the newest shaft, fifth in the franchise movie series about an african american crime-fighting detective, opens on june 14 across the united states.
- his car in this installment is an immaculate 1971 chevrolet chevelle.
- the character john shaft is joined in this movie by his son, john shaft jr., and his uncle, the original john shaft, played by richard roundtree.
mention the original movie shaft to most aging hipsters, and it'll conjure up scenes of the old new york city, its dark and gritty streets filled with nondescript '60s and '70s detroit sh*tboxes stacked up like dirty barges in a sea of urban decay. well, that, and the hit title song, "theme from shaft," performed by isaac hayes. and while isaac hayes famously owned a gold-plated cadillac eldorado in his personal life, the original shaft motion picture was surprisingly light on automotive glitz. a lot has changed since then: new york of old has been remade into a bright and shiny yuppie (manhattan) and hipster (brooklyn) playground, and shaft, well, he's cleaned up his act, too, scoring an immaculate 1971 chevrolet chevelle as his current day vehicle in the latest entry in the shaft franchise entitled, you guessed it, shaft.
this time around, the story focuses on his son, john shaft jr. (jessie t. usher), who seeks out his father, john shaft (samuel l. jackson), to help him track down a killer. say what you will about the, um, plot, john shaft's chevelle is a story worth telling.
four chevelles were needed for the film, so, popular mechanics reported this week, the production turned to atlanta-based stephen austin, a mechanical savant of sorts who has prepared movie cars, or "picture cars" as they are known in the biz, for titles as unvaried as the walking dead and zombieland. taking a reported eight weeks to prepare, austin split the quartet in half. two would be "hero" cars used for closeup photography and the other two for the good stuff, by which we mean the action scenes.
as popular mechanics tells it, it took austin and his team of seven mechanics eight weeks to prepare the cars. while back in the day this generation of chevelle was available with numerous engine choices, from an inline-six to a brutal 454-cubic-inch v-8, going period perfect for the film wasn't necessary. but we're not complaining; just the sight of that detroit iron busting through the streets of new york (full disclosure: much of it was actually shot in atlanta), weaving between the modern automotive appliances like a killer shark moving though schools of pollock, brings joy to our hearts. we can only hope that jackson finds a way to reprise his trademark "this is some repugnant sh*t" line while behind the wheel of his chevelle ss. the movie opens today.