Legendary Pictures will release a live-action Detective Pikachu film

It isn’t The Maltese Falcon, but it still COULD be a cinematic classic. 

Deadline has confirmed that Legendary Pictures has locked down a deal with The Pokemon Company to produce a live-action Pokemon film. This would be Legendary's second major video game film after the recently released Warcraft. 

But there’s a twist. Instead of a film based on the game series or the original animated series, the film will be based on the game Great Detective Pikachu which so far has only been released in Japan. (See the trailer above.)

Though the idea of a live-action Pokemon film isn’t completely surprising at the moment, (the recent release of Pokemon Go has launched the series back into mainstream popularity and rocketed Nintendo’s stock), a film franchise based around a talking Pikachu who dons a deerstalker cap and solves mysteries could could certainly be called unexpected. 

The movie choice does make a little sense when one considers that this would let Legendary finally give the Pokemon mascot a voice, and put him at the center at the film instead of a human trainer. 

No release date has been given for the film at this time.