Last Wednesday, a new version of PowerRangers.com bowed on the web, now ran by Saban and I got to say, it is miles better than the flash site created by Disney a couple years. Not to mention, they have updated it to RPM now.  There are still a couple of mistakes that many fans have pointed out, like some of the Rangers are not mentioned, episode descriptions are awkwardly worded and most of the online games are imported from the old Disney sites. But, this is a step in the right direction to establish a web home for PR in the time of social networking, with an iTunes store and Twitter and Facebook links in the works. The site also teases Season 18.

Also, the new site is showing all 145 episodes of the original broadcast versions of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers one by one until February 1st, with the newest episode as of this writing “A Different Drum”, featuring the battle with Gnarly Gnome with some temporarily renamed Power Weapons.

Also, there is some casting news as filming for season 18 got underway on Tuesday with the return of an old enemy as a new friend.  Rene Naufahu, who played the power-hungry Emperor Gruumm in Power Rangers S.P.D., is back in a mentor role playing a character named Takeru.  Its great to see Rene back in the saddle after a while, especially since did a great job as Gruumm in S.P.D.  Nafuahu, born in 1970, is known for his work in his native New Zealand in Shortland Street with appearances in The Matrix, The Beastmaster and Hercules: the Incredible Journeys.  This little piece of news came from the Facebook page of Ludus Magnus, a gym owned by Joe Nafuahu.

News concerning the production of season 18 has been revealed through Twitter messaging and contacts to New Zealand.  First, the Stunt Guild of New Zealand revealed through email to Rangerboard member RangerWisdom that filming will start next month.  Mark Harris Stunt Productions LTD will be doing the stunts for this season.

A second bit of production news has bigger effects on this season and others to come.  One of the cameramen in New Zealand has revealed that this season of Power Rangers will be shot with the famous RED digital cameras used for such TV shows and as TNT’s The Cleaner, Southland and Leverage, the later seasons NBC’s ER and movies such as Gamer, Angels and Demons, and the Academy Award nominated District 9.  This is important to know for two reasons.

1. The RED series of cameras are known capturing footage at resolutions of 4,096 x 2,304 pixels, four times the resolution of 1080p HDTV (1920 x 1080).   The raw footage produced by the cameras would then be scaled down to HD.   That’s right, you heard me correctly.  Power Rangers in HD. The Blu-ray disc buzz words used by Saban and Marvista in the past couple of months will soon be come reality.   After three years of the horrid cropping, squashing and other general neglect during the Disney years, Power Rangers will air on Nickelodeon’s HD feed in widescreen format.  And…

2. Super Sentai has also started using RED cameras, starting last year with Shinkenger.  For the first time, PR and Sentai will be using the same equipment to film.  The footage switch, barring directorial and special effects differences, will be a little bit more seamless thanks to the new technology.  Not to mention each of the RED cameras alone (without viewfinders, mounts or lenses) cost $17,500.  Kinda makes you shudder wondering what would have happened if Disney had continued with the SD video tape used for Dino Thunder through R.P.M.  And the old days back when Saban had to use retail VHS copies of Zyuranger for Mighty Morphin.

Next years’ PR is set to be a groundbreaking one with a new cast, a new network, a new resources and  a whole new look.  Now if we only had a name.

Even with no sign of name for this season, a lot has happened in the past few weeks and I’m sorry I haven’t been around for it all.  Now that the Comic-con over with, we now know a lot more information of what go down with PR on Nick.  First, after coming to the Comic-con with suit actors posing as the classic Mighty Morphin team, Nickelodeon passed out DVDs with Day of the Dumpster, non-reversioned, revealing it will be October that the classic episodes will arrive on Nicktoons. (more…)

While the cast is still in the process of put together, some indirect news came from a report talking about the delays of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit”.  Many workers in New Zealand are leaving Wellington for Auckland with PR being one reason.

Movie production workers, such as costume designers and set painters, had headed to Auckland where there was more work, Baldock said. “They’re being offered three-year contracts on [TV show] Power Rangers. It is a lower rate than The Hobbit would offer, but they’re looking for that continuity. Our movie reputation is drifting north.”

The three-year contracts show that Saban has a long term plan regarding Power Rangers and I am glad for this as well as a lot of workers getting jobs.