With the Pokemon Go craze taking the world by storm, Legendary Pictures has partnered with The Pokemon Company to deliver the first live-action Pokemon film Detective Pikachu.
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The film is an adaption of the 3DS game of the same title, which was released earlier this year in Japan, and features the Pikachu character as a deerstalker hat-wearing sleuth who works and communicates with humans.
An intense bidding war over the franchise's film rights developed last week after the growing international popularity of the newly launched Pokemon Go, an augmented reality game. Legendary is reported to have secured the lucrative deal.
The Detective Pikachu game's storyline focuses on the iconic yellow electric mouse teaming up with a boy named Tim to search for the boy's missing father.
Pokemon fans took to Twitter to share their excitement about the upcoming film.
And @Legendary have secured the rights to make a live action Pokémon movie. Today has started well. #pokemon— Richard Newell (@Solid_S_Boss) July 21, 2016
There's gonna be a Pokemon movie— #MAFUKA (@CallyV92) July 21, 2016
... Detective Pikachu movie? I can dig it.— Ted (ExandShadow) (@ExandShadow) July 20, 2016
Oh wow. Kicking off the live-action movie franchise with a "Detective Pikachu" adaptation? Interesting choice. https://t.co/dT8E5z8Bol— Eric Stirpe (@stirpicus) July 20, 2016
man screw Pokemon Go, when's Detective Pikachu coming out— Brian Hanson (@brian_hanson) July 8, 2016
I'm watching the Pokémon movie bcuz haha I don't need to give an explanation it's the f----- Pokémon movie— i'm sleep (@hoodIvm) July 21, 2016
It has not been confirmed whether the live-action version will have a similar narrative to the game.
A release date for the film or cast names has not been announced.
Production is set to begin in 2017 and the film will be distributed by Universal outside Japan.
Past films in the franchise have been animated spin-offs from the Pokemon television series, where main character Ash and his companion Pikachu dealt with powerful and ancient creatures known as legendary Pokemon.
