Lionsgate may be working on a "Power Rangers" reboot, but we bet it's nothing like this super-gritty fan film, directed by Joseph Kahn ("Torque") and featuring James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff.

The short film, "Power/Rangers," which clocks in at around 12 minutes, picks up years after our heroes last fought Rita and her monsters. Van Der Beek plays Rocky, a former member of the Rangers crew who has since turned on his onetime friends, taking Kimberly, a.k.a. the Pink Ranger (Sackhoff), hostage.

An intense exchange littered with flashbacks shows how hard times have fallen on our heroes, with sex, drugs, and eventually gruesome murder eventually overtaking the gang. There's also plenty of cursing, too, another element that didn't make it into the Saturday morning kids show.

HitFix has an interview with Kahn, in which he explains his thought process behind the film, which also features impressive special effects and a kickass soundtrack (that theme song never sounded better). The director acknowledges the cheesy source material, saying he wanted to rise above the silliness of "these guys turn into dinosaurs" and explore the series's roots in anime and kung fu.

"Overall, it's a very serious thing," Kahn told HitFix. "The joke isn't that you're laughing at each particular scene; the joke is that we did this 'f--k you' thing in the first place. You're going to look at it and you go wow I can't believe they f--king did that."

Check it out for yourself below. For more from Kahn, read his entire interview over at HitFix. [via: Joseph Kahn, HitFix]

Photo credit: Vimeo