There's been a lot of curiosity around the tone of the upcoming Power Rangers, which released its first teaser trailer just the other day at New York Comic Con. That trailer showed a fairly serious take on the color coded super team, with more than a few people pointing out the similarities to Chronicle -- including its writer, Max Landis. Landis took to Twitter to voice his displeasure and point out that he was once hired to write a draft for Power Rangers.
Once upon a time, Max Landis was hired to write a draft for Power Rangers. Apparently, it wasn't what the producers were looking for, and they decided to move in a different creative direction. After going through more writers and scripts, they settled on a version that has some eerie similarities to Chronicle, a film written by Max Landis. As Landis puts it in his tweet, they fired the writer of Chronicle and ended up making another Chronicle. Film fans tend to have mixed opinions on Landis and his work, but it's understandable that he's not too happy with how things turned out. Anyone who's listened to him pitch a project knows that he's passionate about his ideas.
For any who may not remember, Chronicle was a film about a group of teenagers (one of them an outcast) who stumble upon an alien structure and get super powers. Hijinks and serious trouble soon follow. The trailer for Power Rangers also showed a group of teenagers (all of them outcasts) stumbling upon an alien structure and getting super powers. Hijinks and serious trouble no doubt follow. It's not hard to see how these two films have similar tone and plot, though the Power Rangers trailer might not be indicative of the whole film.
Landis went on to tweet about his version of the Power Rangers script and how different it was from the one the producers ended up choosing.
A "silly, fun, goofy retro teen action adventure" is certainly more in line with the Power Rangers source material and couldn't be farther than what the trailer ended up showing. Does that mean the film made the wrong choice? It's way too soon to tell, but I'm of the opinion that they may have gone a bit too far ("no one would care if you died" is written on someone's locker). Knowing Max Landis, his version of the script will end up online eventually, and I'm really curious how his version will compare to the final film.
Power Rangers is directed by Dean Israelite and is scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 24, 2017.
