Shaft is a 2000 action crime thriller film directed, co-written, and co-produced by John Singleton and starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role with Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Dan Hedaya, Busta Rhymes, Toni Collette and Richard Roundtree. It is a contemporary sequel to the 1971 Shaft film, in which Jackson plays the nephew of John Shaft. The film opened at the number-one position at the box office when it debuted June 16, 2000. It received mixed reviews on Metacritic, but the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes praises Jackson's charisma.