9/21/2014

Roberto Orci Exits 'Power Rangers'; Max Borenstein Returns to Pen 'Godzilla 2'; Gary Whitta Adapting 'Starlight'


That Power Rangers reboot everyone is dreading so excited about has lost exec-producer and franchise powerhouse Roberto Orci due to scheduling. It's not much of a surprise conflicts arose as he's set to make his directorial debut on Star Trek 3, which obviously is going to take priority. So where does this leave Power Rangers? Basically where it was before, with a pair of writers in Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller (X-Men: First Class), a release date of July 22nd 2016, and nobody yet hired to direct it.

The Godzilla sequel is adding another familiar piece beyond director Gareth Edwards. Max Borenstein, who wrote that film as well as the King Kong prequel Skull Island, will return to hide Godzilla from us some more in the follow-up. We don't know much about the film other than its distant June 8th 2018 release date and that Legendary Pictures want to have Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidora in it. I keep stressing they did not "promise" to put them in it, just that they want to. Hopefully they'll find a way.

Mark Millar, the comics scribe behind Kick-Ass, Wanted, and Kingsman: The Secret Service, has another of his projects headed to the screen. 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to Millar's latest series, Starlight, last year before the first issue had even been published. Now they've added some impressive talent to get the adaptation going, hiring Gary Whitta to write the screenplay. Whitta previously wrote The Book of Eli and is currently working on Gareth Edwards' Star Wars spinoff. Starlight centers on former superhero Duke McQueen, who is called out of retirement to save the universe one last time. [THR]