Dean Israelite In Talks To Direct POWER RANGERS Film For Lionsgate/Saban

No darkness and grittiness here. Lionsgate is going its own route with a likely PG-13 big screen franchise as intended for the upcoming theatrical reboot of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The film was initially announced late last year with Haim Saban attached to produce the new film along with Brian Casentini, Allison Shearmur and Roberto Orci, based on the early-90's American Tokusatsu re-working of the longstanding Super Sentai program, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which centered on a handful of teens gifted with superpowered morphers to fight intergalactic evil.

As of this week, The Wrap reports that the production appears to finally be cicling a director in the form of Project Almanac helmer Dean Israelite, so time will tell if that gets made official. If and when that is so, he will be directing from a script by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz. In the meantime, there's no cast publicly in place just yet, but there's also the prospect of veteran series actor and co-star Jason David Frank, best known for wearing several colors among the title heroes throughout the two decades of the show's existence in the U.S., who's been notably hustling as best as he can to have a role in the film in some capacity for a while now.

Things are moving slowly, so keep an eye out as things develop!

POWER/RANGERS, Ceased By Saban, Now Back Online Following Settlement

It's funny how the smallest of details can mean the biggest of changes in the course of events. The latest online craze over Bootleg Universe's deboot short, Power/Rangers has been the biggest example of this as of four days ago, unleashing the biggest, darkest, most visually stunning and violent take on the 90's childrens' Ameritoku series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, just four days ago, followed by litigatory threats from billonaire media magnet and franchise owner Haim Saban and Saban Brands which ultimately led to its disabling on Vimeo and YouTube over a day later.

Of course, the initial Vimeo upload on the channel shortfilm's director, Detention and Torque helmer Joseph Kahn was already downloadable with a disclaimer stating that the project, produced by Dredd producer, Bootleg Universe's own Adi Shankar was merely a freebie one-shot for the fans. Despite this, the near-immediate popularity and virility of the short became the biggest and likely the most divisive issue between fans familiar with the American crossover series; It's slick, glossy sci-fi appeal incorporated with its dark, gritty, gory and tragic tone embodied the very reasons why fans alike (including several of the show's original cast members) either loved it, hated it, or shared professional opinions mixed from both ends. Nevertheless, what ensued was almost troubling for Shankar and Kahn who felt that Saban's legal response just a few days actions were a signature stamp on the gloomy nature of how fandom gets observed by any content creator online.

With this, however, comes some good news via Deadline that Shankar and Kahn were able to reach a deal with Saban in a settlement that now allows Power/Rangers, in both its NSFW and SFW versions, to remain online. Both versions now have more legally-termed disclaimers as well as age restrictions so as to further set the boundaries between what Power/Rangers is, and the children's show is aimed at when online users of all ages search for something on the web. “They put these disclaimers on so kids so don’t confuse our super-violent film with their Power Rangers brand." Kahn told Deadline. "There are no hard feelings. We signed contracts. We can play it anywhere we want on all platforms. I think they realized that people just want to see it.”

Obviously, Power/Rangers is and always will be a one-shot pitch, and there shouldn't be a stranglehold on creativity to such levels where legal action is the result. But then again, there's a lesson to be learned here when it comes to filmmaking while adapting something to your own vision, even as a fan contribution, and that is to get the blessing of the copyright owners first and foremost and establish an amicable dialogue, lest you find yourself at the other, less-approving end of a copyright infringement lawsuit.

At any rate, Saban Brands is currently developing a theatrical feature film franchise as of last year with the help of Lionsgate. So, in lieu of this new short, the new report ought to extinguish the angst a bit more between both parties now that the lines are drawn and all is well.

On that note, both versions are back online, SO CLICK HERE AND GO NUTS!