According to Hollywood Reporter, the Pokemon Go hype train is starting to leak over into other aspects of the Pokemon franchise. The report claims that Legendary Pictures has secured film rights for a Detective Pikachu live-action film.
For those of you unaware, Great Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Duo is a Nintendo 3DS title that was released in Japan back in February of this year. It’s a departure from the series in the fact that the Pikachu can communicate with humans. The talking Pikachu befriends a boy named Tim, and they go around solving Pokemon mysteries together. The game never came to the West, as of yet.
The Detective Pikachu film is set to start production sometime in 2017. Netflix was reportedly heavily interested in the property rights as well. Universal Pictures will distribute the film outside of Japan, while Toho will handle the Japan aspect of things. There have been 19 Pokemon animated feature films, but this is the first notable example of the series being given the live-action treatment.