Legendary Entertainment and The Pokemon Company announced today they will partner to launch the first-ever Pokémonlive-action filmfranchise based onDetective Pikachu, a new character and story in the Pokémon universe. The world first met Detective Pikachu through a video game in Japan, and further details of how his story will be told are being kept under wraps for the moment. The film will be fast-tracked for production start in 2017.
First introduced in Japan in 1996,Pokémonhas delighted fans of all ages around the world for two decades. With more than 279 millionvideo gamessold worldwide, 21.5 billion TCG cards shipped to 74 countries, and an animated series spanning 19 seasons,Pokémonis one of the most successful entertainment brands in the world. The franchise kicked off its 20th Anniversary celebration with aSuper Bowl commercialearlier this year.
Universal Pictures will handle distribution of the live-action film outside Japan as it has done withLegendary’s other films for years. The Pokémon Company’s long time movie collaborator, Toho, will handle distribution of the film franchise in Japan, as it had similarly done in its partnership with Legendary on the iconic monster reboot forGodzilla. No writer or director is attached for thisPokemon moviequite yet.
The deal was brokered byDon McGowan, General Counsel at The Pokémon Company International, who led the negotiations with outside counselDan Blackof Greenberg Traurig.Marty Willhite, Legendary’s Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel along withDaniel Feinberg, Vice President Corporate Counsel andMike Ross, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, represented the studio. No release date has been given at this time.
There had been rumors of a live-actionPokemonmovie for quite some time, with a mysterioustrailerdebuting back in 2010 that was supposedly from aPokemonlive-action movie project. The franchise is more popular than ever thanks to the launch of the mobile augmented reality app dubbedPokemon Go, which has already become a cultural phenomenon ever since launching just a few weeks ago. We’ll be sure to keep you posted with more updates onDetective Pikachuas soon as more details surface. In the meantime, take a look at the video game trailer forGreat Detective Pikachu, which was released by Nintendo in Japan earlier this year.
