‘Pokémon’ Movie Pursued By Legendary Pictures After ‘Pokémon Go’ Frenzy

“Pokémon Go” fever has swept the nation, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down any time soon. The augmented-reality mobile video game allows players to catch, train, and battle Pokémon out in the real world, using GPS and camera technology. Its runaway success has led to a $9 billion 25% stock price jump for Nintendo, and now Hollywood is knocking on its door yet again. Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures is pursuing a deal for the rights to make a live-action film based on the long-running Japanese video game. It’s likely to be the biggest video-game movie rights deal in history.

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Created in 1995 by Satoshi Tajiri, the “Pokémon” media franchise follows a variety of fictional creatures that humans, or Pokémon Trainers, catch and train so that they can battle for sport. It first began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy, but since then, it exploded into a full-blown phenomenon. There’s an anime series, the longest-running animate series behind “The Simpsons,” “Arthur,” and “South Park,” a trading card game, and a series of animated films. For its 20th anniversary this year, Nintendo plans to create a commemorative Super Bowl Ad, re-release the two original games “Pokémon Red Version” and “Blue Version,” along with a new trading card game series. All told, the “Pokémon” media franchise has grossed over $46.2 billion worldwide, even after its

Legendary Pictures nor Pokémon USA were available for comment for the Deadline story.

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