Detective Pikachu Movie in the Works for 2017
It looks like Hollywood is ready to try and exploit the huge wave of momentum that Pokemon Go is riding at the moment. It looks like it’s coming in the form of a live-action movie based on the Pokemon franchise for Detective Pikachu. Variety reports that Legendary Entertainment is producing the first Pokemon movie in a partnership with The Pokemon Company to launch a live-action film franchise. The first film in this franchise is set to be Detective Pikachu.
According to the report, the first film is being fast-tracked for a 2017 release. Whether it will actually make that time frame remains to be seen. After the massive success of Pokemon Go after it’s huge launch, Hollywood had apparently renewed its interests in turning the franchise into a feature film. Another video game-turned-film adaptation that Legendary worked on was Warcraft, which didn’t do very well at the US box office, but it did perform better overseas.
The Great Detective Pikachu game featured Pikachu in the role of a detective. This version of Pikachu is also capable of speech. However, the game has not yet even been released in the US. A Detective Pikachu story seems like a random choice to adapt into a film out of all the Pokemon material that is out there.
It should be interesting to see how this film series turns out. But as Warcraft proved, a fanbase and some cool, big-budget visuals still isn’t enough to turn a video game into a successful film franchise. Hollywood producers still haven’t really cracked that formula.