“John Shaft is The Man,” says costume designer Ruth Carter, who worked with Singleton on Rosewood and was Oscar-nominated for both Malcolm X and Amistad. “He’s the guy who women want and bad guys are afraid of. He’s it. I didn’t have to elevate Sam in this respect, because he’s already there as an actor. But I wanted to parallel his talent with a kind of smart, savvy look that was approachable but also menacing.”

Not surprisingly, Carter enlisted the help of a designer every bit as iconic in his way as Shaft: Giorgio Armani. And it didn’t take Armani long to get the feel of the film. “I’ll design the clothes,” he told Jackson. “You create the attitude.” Which is just what he did..

SHAFT Paramount Pictures presents a Scott Rudin/New Deal production. A John Singleton film. Prod: Scott Rudin, John Singleton; Exec prod: Adam Schroeder, Paul Hall, Steve Nicolaides; Co-prod: Eric Steel; Dir: John Singleton; Scr: Richard Price, John Singleton, Shane Salerno, from a story by Singleton and Salerno, based on the novel by Ernest Tidyman and on the motion picture from the Turner Entertainment Co Library; Ph: Donald E Thorin; Prod des: Patrizia von Brandenstein; Cost des: Ruth Carter; Ed: John Bloom; Mus: David Arnold, Isaac Hayes. With Samuel L Jackson (John Shaft), Vanessa Williams (Carmen), Jeffrey Wright (Peoples Hernandez), Christian Bale (Walter Wade), Busta Rhymes (Rasaan), Dan Hedaya (Jack Roselli), Toni Collette (Diane Palmieri), Richard Roundtree (Uncle John), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Jimmy Grovitch). International distribution: Paramount Pictures/UIP.