In 1971 director Gordon Parks broke the mould of US crime thrillers with Shaft, the first in the genre to feature a tough, sexual black hero in the resourceful private eye played by Richard Roundtree. The movie's success spawned two sequels and a television series, and now a new Shaft featuring the redoubtable Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft, an NYPD detective on the case of an arrogant young white (Christian Bale staying in American Psycho mode) who murdered a young black student. Richard Roundtreee pops up as Shaft's Uncle John, and the Oscar-winning theme music by Isaac Hayes is revamped for the soundtrack.