Detective Pikachu (film)

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (also known as Detective Pikachu) is an upcoming sci-fi action comedy mystery film directed by Rob Letterman and written by Nicole Perlman and Letterman, based on the 2016 video game of the same name. The film is an American and Japanese joint venture produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures, and The Pokémon Company. It is the first American live-action film set in the Pokémon universe. The film stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice and facial motion capture of Detective Pikachu, with Justice Smith, Kathryn Newton and Ken Watanabe in live-action roles.

It is scheduled to be released in RealD 3D on May 10, 2019 by Warner Bros. Pictures, making it the first Pokémon film to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. since Pokémon 3: The Movie in 2001.

Premise
In the Pokémon universe, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is a former Pokémon Trainer and the son of prominent detective Harry Goodman. When his father disappears in a car crash, Tim arrives in Ryme City and ends up meeting Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds), who was Harry's former Pokémon partner. Tim is somehow able to understand the Detective, and they reluctantly team up to find Harry and uncover the mystery surrounding his disappearance. Chasing clues through the streets of Ryme City, the dynamic duo soon discover a devious plot that poses a threat to the Pokémon universe.

Cast

 * Ryan Reynolds as the voice and facial motion capture of Detective Pikachu, a world-class detective and exceptionally smart Pikachu who can talk.
 * Ikue Ōtani as Detective Pikachu's normal Pikachu voice, as heard by humans other than Tim.
 * Justice Smith as Tim Goodman, a former Pokémon Trainer looking for his missing father. He is also Detective Pikachu's partner, and the only person capable of hearing him speak.
 * Max Fincham plays a younger Tim.
 * Kathryn Newton as Lucy Stevens, a reporter accompanied by a Psyduck.
 * Ken Watanabe as Detective Yoshida, a Ryme City police lieutenant and friend of Harry Goodman's.
 * Paul Kitson as Harry Goodman, the missing father of Tim Goodman, a famous Ryme City detective.
 * Karan Soni as Jack
 * Omar Chaparro as Sebastian

Additionally, Rita Ora, Bill Nighy, Suki Waterhouse, Chris Geere, and Rob Delaney have been cast in undisclosed roles.

Development
In April 2016, it was reported that Legendary Pictures was in negotiations for live-action film rights to Pokémon. Later in July 2016, Legendary was nearing to close a deal for the film. On July 20, 2016, it was announced that Legendary and The Pokémon Company had signed on a deal together to create the first live-action film in the franchise, which would be based on the video game Detective Pikachu. Initially, Universal Pictures would handle the distribution outside Japan, while Toho would handle the Japanese distribution. On August 16, 2016, Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch were in negotiations with Legendary to write the screenplay. On November 30, 2016, Legendary hired Rob Letterman to direct the film, which the studio had fast-tracked for production to start in 2017. In January 2018, it was announced that Mary Parent and Cale Boyter are producing the film, along with Joe Caracciolo and The Pokémon Company's Tsunekazu Ishihara as executive producers, and with Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri as an executive producer.

On July 25, 2018, Warner Bros. Pictures announced they would take over worldwide distribution duties (except in Japan and China) from Universal, with the release date unchanged. The reason for adapting Detective Pikachu came from The Pokémon Company and Letterman's desire to make a movie that focused on another character besides Ash Ketchum. On the premise, Letterman stated, "The Pokémon Company, they've already made many, many movies of Ash, and they came to Legendary with this idea of using a new character. So when I came onboard, I was pitched this character of Detective Pikachu, and I fell in love with the story behind it."

Casting
In November 2017, Justice Smith was cast in the lead human role, with Kathryn Newton cast to costar after an intense session of reading and testing actresses who would appear opposite Smith. Newton beat out Natalia Dyer, Haley Lu Richardson, and Katherine Langford for the role. In December 2017, Ryan Reynolds was cast in the titular role to be portrayed via motion-capture. Other actors considered for the role were Danny DeVito, Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman. In January 2018, with production commencing, Ken Watanabe, Bill Nighy and Chris Geere joined the cast. In February 2018, Suki Waterhouse and Rita Ora joined the cast. In April 2018, Omar Chaparro joined the cast.

When the film's Japanese release was announced on November 29, 2018, Ryoma Takeuchi was confirmed to voice Tim Goodman in the Japanese dub.

Filming
Principal production began on January 15, 2018, in London, England and Denver, Colorado. Nine days later, Legendary announced that principal photography had officially begun with much of the filming taking place in the U.S. state of Colorado and England. The press release revealed that Alex Hirsch was not involved with the final draft of the script and that Nicole Perlman and Rob Letterman were the only ones credited. Much of the on set interaction and vocal reference for Pikachu was filled in by Jon Bailey. However, all of his dialogue was dubbed over by Ryan Reynolds. Principal photography concluded on May 1, 2018. Some filming was done at Shepperton Studios, Warner Brother Studios in Leavesden, Minley Woods in Hampshire, and Scotland.

Post-production
Visual effects were created by the Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Framestore. Much of the visual effects were provided by the same team behind The Jungle Book and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Letterman compared the visual effects to the character of Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy. "They're technically, some of the most high-end visual effects in the world... It's completely photo-realistic, like they are alive and in the movie." Additional audio recording of a supposed fight between Detective Pikachu and Charizard was recorded at the Pokémon World Championships.

Marketing
In early November 2018, with the film in post-production phase, a screen test was held for an incomplete version of the film, which drew considerably positive reactions from the test audience, with praise directed towards the script, visual effects, and Reynolds' performance.

The film's first official trailer was revealed on November 12, 2018. Warner Bros. revealed versions of the trailer in English along with dubbed versions in Spanish, French, Italian and German. It soon became the top trending video on YouTube, and a top trending topic on Twitter, while inspiring numerous internet memes and reaction videos. Within 24 hours, the high-concept trailer amassed more than 100million views across multiple online platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. On YouTube, the English-language trailer garnered over 1million likes within two days, and 1.22million likes within five days.

On November 30, 2018, Letterman, Smith, and Newton appeared on stage during the Tokyo Comic Con event for a full announcement of the Japanese release.

Release
The film will be distributed outside of Japan and China by Warner Bros. Pictures on May 10, 2019, in Japan by Toho in the same month, and by Legendary East in China.