Second Update: It's back! The video was reposted to Vimeo with one new addition. “They put these disclaimers on so kids so don’t confuse our super-violent film with their Power Rangers brand," director Joseph 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.”
Update: The video was pulled from Vimeo, but you can still see the safe-for-work version on YouTube.
Vimeo took down my NSFW POWER/RANGERS short. Hope you guys downloaded it. The SFW version is still on Youtube: https://t.co/PMbHwGlsqZ
— Joseph Kahn (@JosephKahn) February 24, 2015
Original story: "Two of the worst types of filmmaking out there that are not credible to filmmakers … one is porn and the other is fan films," Director Joseph Kahn said in an interview with Hitfix. "So the minute that [director Adi Shankar] pitched me into doing this, I thought, 'Okay, well, that sounds like fun actually. If it's that … completely without credibility … then that's something I could really get my hands around and see if I could do something new with it.'"
The result is Power/Rangers, a serious, not safe for work take on the children's show with a pitch-black tone and some serious talent behind it, both in front of and behind the camera. I'll let the work speak for itself, and it's completely amazing, but don't get your hopes up for anything longer coming from this piece.
"The irony here is that I wouldn't even want to make Power Rangers: The Movie for real. Like if I had to make a Power Rangers movie, this is it," Kahn explained. "It's 14 minutes long and it's violent and this is what I have in me. If they offered me the $200 million version, the PG-13 version, I literally wouldn't do it. It's just not interesting to me."
The entire interview is fascinating, and the short is well worth your time. Enjoy!