'Bloody' Power Rangers Short Film Causes Stir Among Fans [Watch]

Did they just release the much-anticipated "Power Rangers" reboot?

You may be one of those asking that question if you've heard about a clip featuring the Saban characters making the rounds in cybersphere in the past couple of hours.

However, the said 14-minute film is not the reboot promised by Saban and Lionsgate. Rather, it's fan-made, "bootleg" version, directed by "Blank Space" music video director Joseph Kahn and produced by Adi Shankar ("Dredd").

"The 'bootleg,' in producer Adi Shankar's term, is the product of a thought experiment: How would fighting an intergalactic war really affect some high schoolers?" CNN said.

Shankar thought that scenario is not very different from having child soliders emerge. "They're going to have PTSD, and they're going have the most f***ed-up lives," he went on to speculate.

"Power/Rangers" is the result of those speculative meanderings, making waves across the Internet and capturing Power Rangers fans' attention.

"The less-violent version has picked up more than 6 million YouTube views in less than two days; the NSFW version has just slightly fewer," the news agency reported. "The video stars James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff."

"The trick that I really wanted to do with this was to make that dark and gritty version that everybody keeps talking about, but really do it," he said about making the short film, as noted by CNN. "Really see if I could totally accomplish it with essentially a really incredible incredibly silly property."

Further, A.V. Club said that Kahn had "spent nine months working on 'Power/Rangers' and claims to have paid for the fan film entirely out of his own pocket."

However, Haim Saban, who owns the U.S. rights of "Power Rangers," decided to rain on Kahn and Shankar's parade. The veteran music video maker said that the billionaire producer has been harassing him "ever since the video went viral."

Kahn has since responded to Saban's overtures through social media.

"Saban is trying to shut POWER/RANGERS down. If you'd like to keep watching, tell them to stop harassing me," he posted on Twitter earlier this week.

Additionally, in a series of tweets, which Deadline took note of, Kahn explained why his film is not a copyright infringement.

"Every image in Power/Rangers is original footage. Nothing was pre-existing. There is no copyrighted footage in the short. I am not making any money on it and I refuse to accept any from anyone. It was not even Kickstarted, I paid for it myself. This was made to be given away for free. It is just as if I drew a pic of 'Power Rangers' on a napkin and I gave it to my friend. Is it illegal to give pic I drew of a character on a napkin to someone for free? No."

"I'm not into Saban suing me, but I'm all in favor of them suing whoever is trying to sell the suits we built for the short. Shady," Kahn said in another tweet.

Vimeo has since taken down the NSFW clip on Tuesday due to the copyright infringement issues raised.

Is the short film a copyright infringement? Tell us what you think.

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