The Pokémon franchise has a lot of movies and animated series, both of which remain major events in Japan and also enjoy a sizeable audience in the West through TV and streaming services. Yet that content has a lot of backstory and lore involved, and it's fair to say that among the tens of millions of gamers that have played Pokémon games, a number won't have watched any of the animated series shows or films.
It's no surprise, then, to see chatter around the rights to Pokémon movies that'd get live-action treatment; after all, a lot of the 20th Anniversary promotions by The Pokémon Company played on that very idea. There's also the Pokémon GO factor, which has taken off to an extraordinary degree and made the brand mainstream news once again.
As a result of this, Deadline is reporting that its sources believe that movie behemoth Legendary Pictures is "moving toward a deal" for rights to the series. Talk of this potential deal has been going around for some months, with the Pokémon brand's power driving interest. Even before GO went massive the broader IP was stealing headlines for its NFL Super Bowl advert, among other things. This year also brings Pokémon Sun and Moon, so it continues to generate a huge amount of interest.
Legendary Pictures was behind the recent cinematic debut of Warcraft, so it's evidently keen on bringing gaming franchises to the movies. Deadspin reckons a prospective deal could also be influenced by the recent explosion of GO, stating that it'll "likely test the bounds of the biggest video-game movie rights deal, which is around $5 million against 5% of first-dollar gross".
Pokémon is hot right now, though any live action movie would surely be at least 2-3 years away by the time deals are done. Whatever the case, few would doubt the commercial potential of mainstream live-action Pokémon movies.
[source deadline.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 15
Better check myself into acting school, I'm desperate to play James or Gary in this...
A live action movie could really go either way. It all depends on the director, and what the story is.
I'm cautiously optimistic about this.
So basically Pokemon GO is modern version of Tamagotchi but in Pokemon style. Well, kinda interesting to see people use their smartphone NOW for Pokemon GO. At least, Nintendo is not a forgotten things.
My initial reaction was - "oh no, another "Airbender" - but w/ a little bit more reflection I see it going much more of the feel good Smurf vibe. I can't imagine those Smurf movies were any good, but they did make 2 of them. And nearly $1 billion w/ a B dollars worldwide. WHAT?!?!
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=smurfs.htm
But no matter how kid-friendly it is, ff Brock is in the movie there will be a scene reminiscent of this one. Brock's my favorite.
The biggest problem stems from the need for child or teenage actors to portray Ash or Red. Sure they can get someone in their early 20s to play a 16 year old trainer, but Nintendo will still need a large 3rd party to aid them with the production of their movie. Furthermore, after the hazardous production of Super Mario Brothers the Movie, I fear that the failure of a Pokemon movie could force Nintendo out of the film industry once again much like over two decades ago.
I'm sure if this live-action adaptation happens, it won't be following the story or characters of the anime series or the video games. Really, I just can't see how a live-action Pokemon movie would work. The premise is just too strange to work in a live-action setting. Unless they did a super-meta movie about a person playing Pokemon Go or something, which could be interesting.
Just don't do it. Please don't. @Yorumi I agree completely.
Directed by Michael Bay.
If Hollywood's in, I'm out.
I'll believe it when it happens. This isn't the first rumour I've seen for a live action pokemon movie, and it sure won't be the last.
Not without Robin Williams as Professor Oak!
Seriously, he wanted to play Oak, and I can't even think of a better fit right now!
Just...no. Please no.
Ok guys you need to learn from history. The reason Mario Brothers failed is because of whats called, "Development hell". Heck their were 2 writers both fighting for how the movie should be done, and in the end we got a heaping bowl of mess. Then the Last Airbender was done by Shamalan. Who already has a terrible history with movies. And finally Dragonball Evolution was done by a guy who only seen a few episodes of Dragonball. He wasn't even a fan of the series. So with all this in mind if we have a good writter, as well as a fan of the Pokemon series working on this. We may have a pretty great movie. Also look at how they did the Warcraft movie, they showed a passion for the series when working on it. If they can turn a game like WOW into a movie, imagine how great the Pokemon movie could be. Also remember Warcraft is a video game movie, so ya.
And to think, Robin Williams was Nintendo's top pick to play Professor Oak if they ever did a live-action Pokemon film.
I'm not sure if any average joe can really pull off an actual live-action film based on Pokémon. I mean, did anyone ever make any working live-action films based on any even more "grown up" or "realistic" video game series before? In fact, has nobody learned anything from the horrific Pokémon Apokélypse parody trailer that was released a few years back?
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...