THE POWER IS BACK!
By freddie cainMay 13, 2010 No Comments
Haim Saban’s newly formed Saban Brands company has re-acquired from Disney the rights to the “Power Rangers” franchise. Power Rangers is the series that built Saban’s fortune in the mid-1990s. It has been reported Saban has made a deal with Nickelodeon to produce 20 new “Power Rangers” episodes, while the library of some 700 older episodes from 17 will begin airing on Nicktoons later on in this year.
Financial terms of the deal have not disclosed at this time, but it’s likely that a price tag is in the nine figure range. At the time Disney acquired “Power Rangers” the franchise had grossed an astounding $5 billion in retail sales alone.
The Prexy of Saban Brands, Elie Dekel, has said the Haim Saban approached Disney about six months ago in hopes of re-quiring the rights to Power Rangers, because he felt it was ready and had potential for a strong revival. Diekel said he sees a great promise in introducing Power Rangers to a new generation of kids through not only a tv series but live touring events and features films among other endeavors.
“Haim has always felt that the brand could truly be evergreen, and while Disney continued to produce the series and support consumer products part of the business, we still see tremendous untapped potential,” said Dekel. Dekel is familiar with the Power Ranger franchise, as he was a Saban Entertainment exec. at the time the original Mighty Morphing Power Ranger’s franchise took off.
The only question now is what is the new series being developed? Is it an American remake of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, the last season of Super Sentai which was wildly popular in both Japan and America, or a remake of Tensou Sentai Goseiger,the current incarnation of Super Sentai. Time will only tell.
Blog, Entertainment, News, Sci-Fi, TV Shows
