“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” reboot will be officially hitting theaters on July 22, 2016. A collaborative project between Lionsgate Films and Saban Entertainment, it will be a remake of “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” movie shown in 1993.
However, a short fan film made by veteran music video director Joseph Kahn about Power Rangers, titled “Power/Rangers” has made the rounds in the internet and has gone viral too, notes Wired.
Kahn is the director of Destiny’s Child MTV for “Say My Name,” and Taylor Swift’s music video for “Blank Space.” His film credits include the film “Torque” and the very underrated movie “Detention.”
A movie ‘deboot’
Calling the Power Rangers fan film as a ‘deboot,’ Kahn actually takes a dig at movie reboots which he thinks are nothing but crap.
Kahn’s Power Rangers movie is also star-studded in a way since it has Katee Sackhoff of “Battlestar Galactica” as Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart, James Van Der Beek as the second Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos, and Russ Bain, who voiced Rodrik Forrester in “Game of Thrones” video games, as Tommy Oliver.
But it is everything that the authorized 2016 movie will never be. Because it is dark, bloody, harsh and vulgar too in terms of language.
Kahn said that he made the short fan film to make a dark and gritty version of the original Power Rangers series and see if he could accomplish something really incredible with what he calls a silly property.
Other than using the original character from the early season of the franchise, there is no other similarity at all. Kahn’s fan film has the Power Rangers snorting drugs, firing guns, cursing, and having that highly-choreographed knife fights.
Cut short and criticized
As expected, the fan film’s life in the internet got cut short when Vimeo, which published the video on its site, had it removed recently that had Kahn extremely displeased.
Kahn resorted to posting his sentiments on his Twitter account alluding that Saban is trying to shut “Power/Rangers” down and claimed that the company has been harassing him.
He said that his short film is meant to be seen on the internet for free and that the idea is analogous to getting a napkin, drawing a Power Rangers on it, and giving it to a friend for free.
Jason David Frank, who played the Green Ranger in the original “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series, posted a video on his Facebook account slamming Kahn’s fan film, details The Hollywood Reporter.
He said that while he knows that there are a lot of fans on the internet who appeared to have liked Kahn’s short fan film, he says the franchise is still basically a PG-13 product. He said the cuss words, the drugs, and all the other stuff, simply does not fly with him because it is not what the brand is all about.
Frank added that Kahn cannot simply reboot a brand that is so dark and gritty because the franchise has never been like that in the first place. And that, many people, both young and old can still connect to the original Power Rangers series.
He was also offered by Kahn to appear in the short fan film and he is happy to say that he passed up on the offer. Frank might appear on the reboot movie that would be released next year.