Power Rangers' Reboot in the Works with Paramount

[Apoho Creed]

This time, the feature is in Paramount's hands.It’s Morphin time for Jonathan Entwistle

The filmmaker, perhaps best known for creating Netflix series The End of the F---ing World, is taking on Power Rangers, a new version of the colorful family adventure franchise, this time set up at Paramount Pictures.

Entwistle is in early negotiations to direct a new feature project that would reboot the title.

Rangers was a ’90s TV series and global marketing franchise, initially called The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, that used footage from a Japanese children’s show. The premise involved a group of kids who become superheroes, each with his or her own color-coordinated outfit and matching helmet. The show first aired on Fox Kids, then in the 2000s on Disney-owned channels. A movie also hit theaters in 1995.

Lionsgate produced and released a feature in 2017 that rebooted the title, making it less kid-friendly and giving it a more brooding YA edge. The movie bombed, grossing only $142 million worldwide on a budget of around $100 million, and plans for a series of films scrapped.

Now in Paramount’s court, Rangers is getting rebooted once more, in a way that hopes to bring the franchise to its roots. The story is said to involve a time-travel element that brings the kids to the 1990s, and in Back to the Future fashion, they have to find a way to get back to their present. Patrick Burleigh, who wrote the upcoming Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, is penning the script.

Hasbro, which bought the property from creator Haim Saban in 2018, is producing the feature via its film arm, Allspark Pictures.

On the surface, Entwistle is an outside-the-box choice for the shiny franchise as his Netflix show is dark and envelope-pushing, about the opposite of what you can get for a Hasbro property. The show, a dark comedy that he directed and exec produced and that debuted its second season in November, told of the growing friendship between a teenage boy who believes he is a sociopath and is looking for a person to kill and a girl who persuades him to ditch their homes for a road trip.

Entwistle is currently in post on I’m Not Okay With This, another Netflix show he co-created, exec produced and directed. Also teenage-centric, Not Okay focuses on a girl dealing with high school life, her budding sexuality and superpowers.

But the director, repped by CAA and Grandview, has shown he has a grasp on the voice of the younger generation, which execs hope will translate into something unique and appealing onscreen.

This is huge news for me being a massive fan. I thought the film in 2017 was good, but man the Goldar look and him having no personality really angered me and those little things really split the liking of the film for viewers. A dream for me would be for me a new group of kids who get sent back in time to see the Rangers we grew up with them passing the torch to them. I do wonder if the Kids go back in time do they get their Ranger powers back in time because in their time they don't exist?

‘Power Rangers’ Reboot in the Works With Creator of ‘It’s the End of the F—ing World’ (Exclusive)

Jonathan Entwistle, perhaps best known for creating Netflix series 'The End of the F---ing World,' is taking on 'Power Rangers,' a new version of the colorful family adventure franchise, which this time is set up at Paramount.

www.hollywoodreporter.com