Legendary Pictures will bring a live-action Detective Pikachu movie to theaters

Regardless, it’s clear this kind of decision was made in the two weeks after the massive success of Pokemon GO; a game so great that people are willing to overlook its insanely broken nature in order to keep up the dream of catching ’em all. Today, Legendary and The Pokémon Co. have inked a deal to bring to fruition the first live-action Pokémon film franchise, as Variety notes. There have been 19 Pokemon animated feature films, but this is the first notable example of the series being given the live-action treatment. Universal will release the picture internationally, while Toho will release Detective Pikachu in Japan. In the game, which has yet to be released outside of Japan, Pikachu teams up with a young boy named Tim to solve crimes and hunt down Tim’s missing father. Legendary has been trying to pick up the film rights to Pokémon since April earlier this year.

Legendary said details are being kept under wraps but added that the film will be fast-tracked for production to start in 2017.

Until more info about the movie comes out (fingers crossed for Benedict Cumberbatch voicing Pikachu), here is the official Japanese trailer for the rather Sherlockian-looking game.

The Dalian Wanda-owned studio announced plans to shoot a live-action “Detective Pikachu”, which will star the property’s popular little yellow character. Depending on how the public reacts to the news, Nintendo’s shares may rise even further, and we may see the Big N sell the film rights to its other big franchises as well in the coming months. I don’t know. I just hope they get Benedict Cumberbatch to play Detective Pikachu.