The sudden meteoric success of Pokémon Go has put the Nintendo franchise — which just had its 20th anniversary — back in the cultural lexicon in a major way. I, for example, have started playing Pokémon Yellow which I never even did at the time. (P.S. it’s super fun.) It seemed only natural for a live-action movie version of the critter-catching property to go into production, and on Tuesday, Variety reported that the project is close to nabbing a couple of screenwriters, ones with a ton of nerd cred and goodwill to boot.
In the article, Variety is reporting that screenwriters Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch are in negotiations with Legendary Pictures to write the movie, based on the game Great Detective Pikachu, following the studio’s acquisition of the film rights to Pokémon last month. The game came out in Japan in February and will be coming out in the rest of the world at some point. A departure from the bulk of the series, and certainly from the animated series and films that have come before it, Great Detective Pikachu follows a peculiar Pikachu who isn’t as nimble or strong as most of its kind, but is highly intelligent and can speak, which also makes it a great crime-solver, deerstalker hat and everything.
Both Perlman and Hirsch have an impressive pedigree coming in to this project; Perlman wrote the initial script for Guardians of the Galaxy and is working on a number of high-profile projects including Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Labyrinth. Hirsch, meanwhile, is the creator of the terrific and intricate animated series Gravity Falls which ran for 70 episodes between 2012 and 2016. If anybody can tackle the Pokémon realm, it’s probably these two.
The movie is set to go into production some time in 2017.
What do you think about the writers who might bring Great Detective Pikachu to non-animated life? Let us know in the comments below!
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The next Pokemon movie should be a Pokemon Go romance story:
Image: Nintendo
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and currently has a sweet level 31 Pikachu in his party. Follow him on Twitter!
