“Shaft has to go about things in the right way: follow the legal procedure to solve crimes and deal with thugs,” continues Rhymes. “Rasaan can assist him in a very unorthodox street way. And that allows Shaft to do his job that much more efficiently.”

Singleton’s long battle to set the movie up finally came to an end on September 21 of last year, when Shaft began filming in New York City. The city as a whole - and Harlem in particular - has changed a lot since 1971: Magic Johnson has opened a Starbucks on Lenox Avenue, and a few blocks away is Harlem USA, the community’s first major shopping mall. But the Dominican neighbourhood of Washington Heights - where several scenes were filmed - is still one which will be largely unfamiliar to movie audiences. And the Lenox Lounge - Shaft’s favourite watering hole - finished its refurbishment programme just in time to be used in the film (albeit with a little help from production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein and her department). Other locations included Vinegar Hill, Red Hook, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crowne Heights across the river in Brooklyn.

Expert advice came from the opposite direction, meanwhile, with Detective Calvin Hart of the Jersey City Police taking Vanessa Williams and other cast members on a tour of the neighbourhood’s main crime scenes. “I showed her where the drug deals were going on,” says Hart, “and taught her how to spot the quick moves that give criminals away.” Tagging along with his tape-recorder, Jeffrey Wright worked on his Dominican accent, which was perfect by the time production began.

Isaac Hayes, who won an Oscar for Best Song in 1972 but is nowadays best known as the voice of The Chef in South Park, also does the score for the new film, working in collaboration with top producer David Arnold.

Most important of all, though, was the way Shaft himself looked. The flares and sideburns of 1971 were clearly out of the question. But it was important that the charismatic cop should look elegant without turning into a clothes horse.