The producers for the upcoming movie adaptation of the beloved children's series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are looking for "relative unknowns" to play the parts of the teenage superheroes.
Screen Rant reports that following the announcement of the movie's release date to January 2017, director Dean Israelite has teased that casting has begun on the movie, and that Lionsgate and Power Rangers franchise owner Saban Entertainment are eyeing newcomers to take on the mantle of the costumed superheroes. If so, this would be par for the course for the franchise, as the Power Rangers and their different iterations have all been played by up-and-coming talent instead of established actors. According to Israelite, casting announcements for the movie could be revealed soon.
In addition to the casting news, Israelite has said that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers adaptation will be a "mature but playful" take on the source material. The director confirmed as much during a recent short interview with IGN.com, saying that "We're in sort of a soft pre-production right now, doing a lot of design work and reimagining the world. "
The shift in tone for this adaptation of the Power Rangers franchise was probably spurred by a recent fan film portraying some of the show's characters in a mature, adult context. The controversial fan film was made by Adi Shankar and Joseph Kahn with performances by Katee Sackhoff and James Van der Beek. It premiered and was shown on several video sharing sites until Saban Entertainment moved to have the fan film pulled from the Internet, citing copyright infringement as the reason. Eventually, however, Saban gave the go-ahead for the film to continue showing.
Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller, previously of X-Men: First Class are penning the script for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers adaptation. It will arrive in theaters on January 13, 2017.
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