Up next: CARE/BEARS? —

PSA: Watch the gritty POWER/RANGERS short film starring BSG’s Starbuck

James Van Der Beek co-stars; producer jokes that he wanted Orlando Bloom as Pink Ranger.

On Tuesday, Dredd film producer Adi Shankar and Torque Director Joseph Kahn posted the violent, vulgarity-laden sci-fi series reboot you never knew you wanted: The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers are back. Well, kind of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw5vcUPyL90

Katee Sackhoff, best known to sci-fi fans as Starbuck from last decade's Battlestar Galactica reboot, stars as Kimberly "Pink Ranger" Hart in a 12-minute short film that was posted to Vimeo and YouTube earlier this morning. (The Vimeo cut has since been pulled, and it was described as the "gorier" version, so, start hunting!) Titled POWER/RANGER—because that styling worked so well for FACE/OFF—the film sees Sackoff being interrogated by James Van Der Beek (who also apparently co-wrote) while he recalls the grisly fates of other Rangers. Karate, robots, guns, swords, and blood ensue, and the results are slick enough for us to feel weirdly comfortable recommending that you watch it.

Shankar took to his YouTube channel to explain his interest in the project. In a video statement, he described his fascination with "high school students being recruited... to fight this intergalactic war that they really have nothing to do with. How's that different from child soldiers? That's really fucked up!" He then joked for a full minute about wishing Orlando Bloom had taken the short film's Pink Ranger role.

Recent "grown-up" reboots of teen-friendly series and children's toy lines have mostly turned out laughably; at least in some cases, like Funny Or Die's take on Captain Planet and Late Night's Saved By The Bell reunion, that humor has been the point. Tuesday also saw the announcement of another '80s kid-series reboot of sorts, with Netflix announcing that Paul Reubens' Pee-Wee Herman character would return as the star of a holiday special by the end of this year. Considering that series' heavy satirical overtones thanks to its Groundlings comedy-troupe roots, we expect that one to be suitably dark and grown-up, as well.

Channel Ars Technica