range = getattr(__builtins__, 'xrange', range)

range_vs_xrange.py

In [1]: import timeit

In [2]: timeit.timeit ('exes = [x for x in range(1000000)]', number=1000)
Out[2]: 62.725528955459595

In [3]: timeit.timeit ('exes = [x for x in xrange(1000000)]', number=1000)
Out[3]: 48.693825006484985

In [4]: range = getattr(__builtins__, 'xrange', range)

In [5]: timeit.timeit ('exes = [x for x in range(1000000)]', number=1000)
Out[5]: 62.58231282234192

In [6]: timeit.timeit ('exes = [x for x in range(1000000)]', number=1000, setup="from __main__ import range")
Out[6]: 48.48969316482544

In [7]: range == xrange
Out[7]: True