There are two kinds of people in the world: people who love Pokemon and people who are unable to wrap their heads around the fact that, after two decades of enduring popularity, this bizarre anime/video game franchise about heroically kidnapping animals and forcing them to fight your battles for you is not a fad.
Either way, you are simply going to have to deal with the fact that Pokemon exists and still rakes in metric tons of delicious money for companies all over the world, and it was only a matter of time before our reboot-fanatic movie studios decided to make a live-action film out of it. The Pokemon Company, which manages the series, has been shopping the live-action movie rights around Hollywood and now they’ve got a whole pander of studios competing for the prize. (Did you know that a group of movie studios was called a “pander?” I just made that up but feel free to use it.)
Also: Five Things We Want to See in ‘Pokemon Sun and Moon’
Hollywood Reporter claims that Legendary Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures are all in contention for the ultimate prize. You can make all the jokes you want here: Warner Bros. will insist on making it grim ‘n’ gritty, Sony will wind up giving half the rights to Marvel, and Legendary will find a way to tie it into Godzilla somehow.
Either way, fans of the games will probably be on pins and needles as they await the final word about who will bring Pokemon to live-action, and poise their plucky digits over all the keyboards they can find, waiting to tell the whole world how American studios are going to screw the whole thing up.
In all seriousness, the best part of this whole deal will be watching rival studios pick up similar competing properties. 1980s nostalgia may be tapped out. 1990s nostalgia is coming, folks. So get ready for motion pictures based on The Pirates of Dark Water, Mighty Max and Gargoyles.
…actually, every single one of those movies sounds like a good idea. Go get those rights, Hollywood! Gotta catch ’em all!
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
