After Nintendo’s $9 billion 25% stock price jump followed the launch of the Pokemon Go mobile game in the U.S., all Hollywood has renewed the chase for a deal to turn Pokemon into a feature film.
Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures is moving toward a deal to land the rights to make a live-action film based on the decades-old pocket monster game from Japan that has gotten a giant second wind since the release of the new app.
This will likely test the bounds of the biggest video-game movie rights deal, which is around $5 million against 5% of first-dollar gross. There have been rumors of a potential Pokemon pictures for some time, and every franchise-hungry studio has been in the mix to obtain it.
Among the scenarios that have been rumored the past few months was that Chronicle scribe Max Landis would be aboard to write the script. At one point, Legendary was rumored to be near a deal, but then everything went silent. Now it’s come back around.
The value of the movie property became red hot after the Pokemon Golaunch, even though it isn’t clear if that iteration of the game will be part of those movie plans. The response to Pokemon Go — where players chase down virtual pocket monsters in their own vehicles — has been staggering.
Is Legendary Going To Catch Pokemon? Movie Deal In Offing For Hot Franchise Property
