Pokemon franchise to be adapted into a movie, Marvel writer to pen script
Detective Pikachu
Acclaimed writers Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch are reportedly in talks to write the script for the upcoming live-action movie inspired by Japanese media franchise ‘Pokemon’.
‘Pokemon’, first created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995, is a franchise of video games, trading cards, TV shows, comic books and movies that center on the unique creatures that are collected by Pokemon Trainers, who then train them to battle for sport.
Since its introduction two-decades back, it has sold 279 million video games worldwide with 21.5 billion cards shipped to 74 countries, and spawned an animated series spanning 19 seasons.
Legendary and The Pokemon Co previously announced that they will launch the first ‘Pokemon’ live-action film franchise-based on Detective Pikachu, a new character in the Pokemon universe, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Universal Pictures will handle distribution of the live-action film outside of Japan. Toho will handle distribution in Japan.
Earlier, Perlman worked on Marvel’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, while Hirsch is the creator and executive producer of Disney’s ‘Gravity Falls’ series.
The news came in the wake of the release of ‘Pokemon Go’, the location-based augmented reality game that has become a worldwide phenomenon since its release last month, clocking in over 50 million downloads. The game allows users to capture, train and fight virtual creatures, called Pokémon. Users are encouraged to walk and locate Pokémon available in the vicinity.
