Fans of the dearly departed Gravity Falls and the soon to be franchised Guardians of the Galaxy will be happy to hear who is leading the charge for the upcoming live action Pokemon film. Falls creator Alex Hirsch and Marvel writer’s room vet Nicole Perlman are in talks to helm the film based on the upcoming Detective Pikachu. For people worried about the tone and direction of the film, these are clearly two voices fans can feel comfortable dealing with a talking Pokemon who solves mysteries. And as reported and covered by Variety, we all have Pokemon Go to thank for this:
The news comes following the announcement that [Legendary] landed the rights to the “Pokemon” franchise after they were shopped around in early July. That deal came two weeks after the Pokemon Go app was released and became a worldwide phenomenon, so much so that it led to a 25% jump in the stock of part-owner Nintendo. The augmented reality game allows players to capture, battle and train the Pokemon virtual creatures.
The Pokemon Company’s long-time movie collaborator, Toho, will handle distribution of the film franchise in Japan, as it has similarly done in its partnership with Legendary on the reboot for the Godzilla franchise.
Gravity Falls came to an end back in February, freeing Hirsch up to take a leap at some new projects. He’s also working with Fox to create a new animated project for the network.
On the other end, Perlman has had a hand in most of Marvel’s biggest hits, like Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor. The future continues to look nice with Perlman producing a treatment for a possible Black Widow film, taking on Brie Larson’s take on Captain Marvel, and bringing M.A.S.K. to the big screen — only one of those sounds questionable.