It’s pretty early on the east coast, but Wednesday is already making a good argument for being the wildest news day of the week.

Lionsgate and Saban Brands have announced a new partnership with the goal of creating live action Power Rangers film based on the popular children’s series and toy line. Brand creator of Haim Saban and Lionsgate Chief Executive Officer Jon Feltheimer broke the news earlier today. No release date or production plan has been revealed, but a 2016 or 2017 release is likely.

“Lionsgate is the perfect home for elevating our Power Rangers brand to the next level,” said Saban. “They have the vision, marketing prowess and incredible track record in launching breakthrough hits from The Hunger Games to Twilight and Divergent. In partnership with the Lionsgate team, we’re confident that we will capture the world of the Power Rangers and translate it into a unique and memorable motion picture phenomenon with a legacy all its own.”

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Haim Saban and his team to maximize the potential of this immensely successful and universally recognized franchise,” said Feltheimer. “The Power Rangers stories and characters have been embraced by generations of audiences for more than 20 years, and today they are more powerful than ever. We have the ideal partner and the perfect brand with which to create a motion picture event that will resonate with moviegoers around the world for years to come.”

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers originally launched in 1993 as a children’s TV series. The show centered around a group of young people who were chosen to protect the world from a group of alien invaders and were given the ability to “morph” into super-powered warriors and to pilot giant robots called “Zords.” The did this by first changing into brightly colors suits, and calling to what I can best describe as their spirit animals in order to summon enormous robots that could put the Jaeger’s in Pacific Rim to shame.

Those of us who lived through the 1990s will no doubt recall the first live action Power Rangers film, which was made for only $15 million. The film maintains a 50% ‘rotten’ score amongst critics, but did manage to generate over $66 million at the box office. We suspect this live action update will cost at least double the original, and it will probably be given a similar score amongst critics. It’s not for us, after all. It’s for children, and when I was young I freaking LOVED Power Rangers, as well as Power Rangers: The Movie. It was the greatest thing to ever happen in the history of cinema at the time, or so I thought, and it’s because of those fond memories that I hope to never see it again. I know it’s bad. I just don’t want to know how bad, you know?

That said, you can view the trailer for Power Rangers: The Movie below. We’ll bring you more on the new live action film as soon as additional information becomes available.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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