Not many screenwriters are recognized simply by name but Max Landis is one who is. He's about as open with his critique on his own work and the jobs he's won and lost as anybody in the business. His breakout film was 2012's sorta-superhero-origin story Chronicle, which was dark and moody, yet maintained a sense of discovery and adventure. Landis has had a string of duds since then, not to mention a handful of major films that he wasn't hired for.
One of those that slipped away was Power Rangers, and Landis is feeling a little bitter at the whole experience now that he's seen the new trailer. To him, it looks like the producers went ahead and made Chronicle, despite not hiring him as the screenwriter. Here are his tweets on the subject...
Yeah, it appears they hired the writer of Chronicle and he wrote a Power Rangers movie, so they fired him and made Chronicle instead. https://t.co/F8lVEJqoU5— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) October 9, 2016
I wrote a silly, fun, goofy retro teen action adventure movie.— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) October 9, 2016
They fired me, and five or so writers later, it appears they made Chronicle.
So according to him, his version of Power Rangers would have been more like what longtime fans of the series probably were hoping for. That's convenient. Keep in mind nobody else can support this and nobody ever will. But to his credit I remarked the trailer was unusually dark and reminiscent of Fantastic Four, which was directed by Chronicle's Josh Trank. So he's not wrong in the comparison, it's just funny that he uses it to put himself in a positive light when nobody was thinking about him at all. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Plus, the basic "kids uncover a stranger power and use it to become heroes" plot isn't unique to Chronicle or anything Landis has written.
Landis should probably focus on making a movie that is actually good because literally nothing he's done since Chronicle is worth a damn. Power Rangers opens March 24th 2017.
