Pokemon Movie is Greenlit

Last we heard, the Pokemon Company was in the process of brokering a deal between several Hollywood studios, who were in a bidding war over a live-action Pokemon movie, which couldn't possibly be more topical now that Pokemon is more popular now than it's been in nearly twenty years.

Well, the winner has been announced, and the top bidder turned out to be Chinese-owned megacompany Legendary Entertainment, the folks behind the Warcraft movie, Jurassic World, and Sucker Punch, who has kept the details of the deal under warps, but has revealed that the movie has been fast-tracked to begin production next year, to try to capitalize on the Pokemon's boost of popularity, so it can be out in time to miss the fad by two years, rather than three of four, a la Angry Birds.So, we're getting a long-awaited western-produced live-action Pokemon movie. Exciting, right? Well, calm those Pokeballs for a bit until you hear the rest: apparently, this movie won't follow the plot of any of the games, but rather, will be a live-action Detective Pikachu movie.

Yeah. That.

If you didn't know, Detective Pikachu was an off-brand spin-off of the Pokemon games released in Japan earlier this year where a talking, crime-solving Pikachu teams up with the one human who can understand him to solve mysteries all around the city. It's been met with moderate success in Japan, and has yet to enjoy a western release, which is why it's a little strange it's being brought to our shores as our first live-action Pokemon movie.

Strange, but not surprising. If you think about it, what other direction would you go for a live-action Pokemon movie? You couldn't exactly do an origin story, and the plots of the games tend to be a little... shallow to fill out a movie. So, a kid-friendly detective story starring everyone's favorite talking mouse who can also create electricity out of their cheeks? Why not?

Can't be worse than the Tetris movie.