Rob Letterman, director of 2015’s Goosebumps and less recently, Monsters vs. Aliens has been selected by Legendary Entertainment to direct the Pokemon spin-off film.
The spin-off film, featuring The Pokemon Company‘s chief mascot will be based off the video-game which released last February in Japan. The game features a wise-crack talking Pikachu who works as sleuth alongside his human partner Tim Goodman, a young boy searching for his missing father as they aim to eliminate all crime in Rhyme City. The film was confirmed two weeks after the release of 2016’s Smartphone phenomenon Pokemon Go, and is the first film in the franchise to be live-action.
Letterman’s track record so far with films is not be sniffed at, with his adaptation of R. L. Stine’s famous scary short stories grossed $150m worldwide, while his other releases, Monsters vs. Aliens and Gulliver’s Travels grossed approximately $380m and $240m respectively.
Letterman will be directing a script from Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls). Universal Pictures will distribute Detective Pikachu: The Movie outside of Japan. The film is due to begin production in the next year, ahead of a 2018 release.
Check out a translated version of the game’s trailer below:
