Trivia / Shaft (2000)

• Fake American: Christian Bale as Walter Wade Jr.
• Fake Nationality: Jeffrey Wright plays a very convincing fake Dominican.
• Hostility on the Set: According to an interview with Samuel L. Jackson, he and John Singleton often argued over the direction of the film. After one particular argument, Singleton refused to come out of his trailer.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The trailer featured two scenes, one involving a fight between Shaft and Wade on an airport runway that didn't make the final cut, and another where Shaft and his partner are talking about Diane and Shaft saying, "If something happens to her, it happens to me."
• Stillborn Franchise: John Singleton planned a sequel where Shaft battles drug lords in Jamaica. But the film's middling box-office returns and Samuel L. Jackson's disappointment with the film stopped any plans of a sequel until Shaft (2019), which neither Singleton nor Scott Rudin are involved in, went into production.
• Throw It In!: When Peoples goes to see Wade and leaves after making his threat, his actor nearly slips on the broken glass and gets caught by his henchman. This wasn't scripted but they left it in as a little joke.
• Wag the Director: Samuel L. Jackson and John Singleton had numerous disagreements with writer Richard Price and producer Scott Rudin over lines in the script that they found racially and sexually offensive. One scene Jackson objected to featured Shaft tossing a candy bar at a sexual partner when she wants him to take her out for dinner. The lines were deleted from the script.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The trailer had a fight between Shaft and Wade, but unfortunately, Executive Meddling gave Peoples Hernandez the more antagonistic role and the fight didn't make the final cut.
  • John Singleton's original idea was for the main character to be the son of John Shaft and that the two Shafts would work together. But no studio was willing to finance the project. Paramount producer Scott Rudin demanded the character to be changed to be Shaft's uncle and for Richard Roundtree's participation to be reduced. Notably, the 2019 sequel retconned Roundtree into being Shaft's father anyway.
  • John Singleton wanted Don Cheadle as Shaft but producer Scott Rudin insisted that a major box-office draw should play the role. Will Smith and Wesley Snipes were also considered. (Snipes publicly blasted Singleton for not casting him, saying that he could have made the film more successful).
  • John Leguizamo was originally cast as Peoples Hernandez but dropped out to work on Moulin Rouge!.
  • Vin Diesel turned down the role of Walter Wade Jr.

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