Matt Austin Interested in Directing New Power Rangers Movie
Ever since Saban Brands and Lionsgate made the announcement on May 7th about making a new live action Power Rangers movie, the topic has been the talk of the town including trending on Facebook. Speculation has been rampant about release dates, the cast, and the director.
One person who is throwing his hat in the ring for the director’s chair is Power Rangers SPD’s own Matt Austin. After his stint on SPD, he has gone back to directing short films and TV shows and is currently directing his feature film Pretend We’re Kissing. Here’s his statement:
If I were to helm the Power Rangers Reboot, I’d try and make sure the whole thing retained an adventurous/tongue-in-cheek tone – even though I’m sure it would be set against the backdrop of the end of world. I don’t think this needs to be “dark” but I don’t think it needs to be campy either. At the end of the day it has to be kid friendly. (Every adult AND kid I know loved The Lego Movie.) I think it’s sad that there are little boys and girls obsessed with Spider-Man and Superman and they can’t even go see the films of their heroes. On an economic front, that doesn’t make a lot of sense either. That’s a lot of tiny bums in seats they’re missing out on.
On a content note, it wouldn’t make sense to try and compete with the X-Men, Iron Man’s and Captain America’s. They just can’t, even with the nostalgia factor. I’m very looking forward to seeing The Guardians of the Galaxy. It looks like it has a great sense of humor. Things like that movie, other teen hero flicks like Attack the Block, films I grew up with like the Goonies or The Last Starfighter, and even Pixar’s The Incredibles, would be the wells I would draw on for inspiration. I also think it would be fun to have it set in the 90s, when the show premiered.
I don’t know how many “well-known” directors are going to be attracted to the project, so if it’s going to be someone new and unknown, why the heck can’t it be me? I have directed teen series (Mudpit), my documentary on John Hughes (Don’t You Forget About Me) certainly has made me a bit of an expert coming-of-age films and my experience as an actor on the series is nothing to sneeze at. If Marc Webb, a filmmaker with zero action movie experience (500 Days of Summer) can be hired to do Spider-Man (B unit did all the action sequences), based on his style and attention to character, story and relationships, why can’t I go from my past shorts, features, and my recent film (Pretend We’re Kissing) to this?
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Comments ( 2 )
Eric added these pithy words on May 13 14 at 10:02 pmPersonally, I think getting Matt to direct the movie is the best case scenario for this movie having a shot at not being terrible. I think because of his experience on the show, Matt would understand how to do right by us fans without pandering and still bring his unique vision that a director would need to sperate this movie from an obvious grab at nostalgia.
pharoah added these pithy words on May 25 14 at 9:34 pmI think this is a bad idea get someone else he may talk a good game but it could be a flop