Ryan Reynolds is joining the first-ever-live-action Pokemon film called ‘Detective Pikachu’.
The 41-year-old actor is joining Justice Smith and ‘Big Little Lies’ star Kathryn Newton in the movie, which is based on the popular gaming franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Although Reynolds’ role has yet to be revealed, the film is set to follow Smith’s teenage character Tim Goodman, who has to team up with the mouse-like Pikachu in order to find his father who has been kidnapped.
Newton is set to star as a journalist.
In the game franchise, Detective Pikachu isn’t as agile as the normal fan favourite Pokemon, so has to rely on his intelligence to beat his enemies, and he gets help from Tim who is the only boy who can understand what the he says, to solve Pokemon-related crimes.
Rob Letterman is set to helm the new movie and has teamed up with Legendary Entertainment to oversee the upcoming movie which has been written by ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’s Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch who has worked on ‘Gravity Falls’, according to Variety.
Rather than a standalone film it is expected that ‘Detective Pikachu’ will act as a launch pad for a franchise.
The Pokemon Company’s long-standing movie collaborator, Toho, will handle distribution of the film franchise in Japan, as it recently worked in partnership with Legendary on the reboot for the ‘Godzilla’ franchise.
Reynolds has just wrapped up filming the highly-anticipated sequel to ‘Deadpool’ where he stars as the foul-mouthed titular character which is set for release next year.
Smith, 22, shot to fame in the Netflix musical drama series ‘The Get Down’ and was handpicked by director Baz Luhrmann and the actor then landed one of the leads in ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’.
Ryan Reynolds joins Detective Pikachu movie
