Legendary Entertainment and The Pokémon Company have, according to a story at Variety, found a writing pair for their upcoming live-action Detective Pikachu movie in Alex Hirsch and Nicole Perlman. Hirsch is best known for creating the hit Disney XD series Gravity Falls, while Perlman has been heavily involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since scripting 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy alongside James Gunn.
The first Pokemon game debuted in Japan in 1996, before making its way to America in 1998. The series began as two titles for Nintendo‘s original Game Boy, which saw players tasked with catching and training all of the Pokemon (short for Pocket Monsters) to become the ultimate Pokemon Master. The franchise quickly evolved into an extensive library of video games, in addition to a popular trading card game, and an anime/film series. Over 279 million units have been sold since the series began, making it one of the best selling video game franchises in history.
Nineteen animated Pokemon movies have been produced and distributed since 1998, though only five have played in theaters in the United States. Warner Bros. distributed the first three films, which brought in $85 million, $43 million, and $17 million as the domestic box office, respectively.
Universal Pictures will handle distribution of the live-action film outside Japan as it has done with Legendary’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 for Godzilla.
