Director Rob Letterman’s Gotta Catch DETECTIVE PIKACHU

Hopefully Pokémon Go players will not be throwing their Poké Balls at Rob Letterman to capture him. The Goosebumps and Monsters Vs. Aliens director has been picked by Legendary to direct the live action film, Detective Pikachu.

This will be the first picture in a new franchise which focuses on Detective Pikachu, a new character and story in the Pokémon Universe. He was introduced in Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Team, which was released in Japan last February. The critter will sport a Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass to solve mysteries while drinking espresso.

Created in 1995 by Satoshi Tajiri, Pokémon centers on unique creatures that trainers collect and train to battle for sport.  It was introduced as a video game franchise, selling more the 279 million videos games worldwide, expanding into trading cards, TV shows, comic books, and movies. Pokémon: The First Movie was release in 1999 with Mew and Mewtwo.  Year later, Pokémon: The Movie 2000 opened with the legendary beast Lugia which introduced Diamond & Pearl and the XY series.

Legendary fast-tracked the new project for production to start in 2017 after striking a movie deal in July during the height of the craze for the mobile phone game, Pokémon Go. It will be penned by Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel) and Alex Hirsch (Disney XD’s Gravity Falls).

Toho will distribute the film in Japan while Universal Pictures will release the film everywhere else.