What do you get when you mix the director of Project Almanac, the writers of X-Men: First Class, and the producer of The Hunger Games and Cinderella?
The answer is the new and improved Power Rangers movie. Filmmaker Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) is currently in talks with Lionsgate to solidify his position as director for the rebooted franchise, popularized in the 90s by its creator Haim Saban. Saban is also producing the new movie, due on July 22, 2016, with Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (both writers on Thor and X-Men: First Class) responsible for the screenplay.
Originally called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the kid-friendly television show about five teens with supernatural fighting skills soon erupted into a global franchise, spawning a slew of TV spin-offs (one of which, entitled Dino Charge, aired this past February) and a couple of films. Now, just shy of 20 years after the last Power Rangers movie, Hollywood is primed to reboot the wildly successful—but very vintage—franchise.
Haim Saban’s lucrative investment in the 1993 show skyrocketed him to billionaire status. When asked why he was interested in rebooting the franchise for both television and screen, Saban told Variety: “The reason I got back into it can be summarized in three words: I like it.”
According to IGN, Saban was approached by producer Roberto Orci about morphing (pun intended) the rebooted storyline. According to Orci:
I had to go to his house, personally, to tell him, ‘Listen, I’m your man. Miller and Stenz, these are your guys. I promise you I won’t ruin your franchise.’ And he said, ‘It’s very important to me, because kids around the world know what the Power Rangers are. So you can’t just come in here and walk all over it. It better be consistent with what I’ve been doing.’
Although Orci ultimately dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts, the reboot is allegedly maintaining continuity within the Power Rangers universe, going so far as potentially including Jason David Frank—known as Tommy Oliver, or the original Green Ranger—in a cameo. Frank has been involved in the innumerable television spin-offs following the initial series’ success, and can be seen in episodes as recently as 2014.
With its original fans all grown up, and with audiences continually pummeled by Hollywood’s compulsive reboot-fever, the popularity and success of the newest Power Rangers movie remains to be seen.
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