Live-action Detective Pikachu Movie Will Begin Filming Soon

A live-action Pokemon spin-off called Detective Pikachu will soon begin filming in January, according to a production listing.

The Detective Pikachu film was announced last year, a movie that's set to be produced by Legendary Entertainment. While the release date of the film was and is still unknown, a start date for the filming has now been decided on.

According to a report from Omega Underground, a production listing that's surfaced for the movie says that it'll begin filming on Jan. 15, 2018. It'll be filmed in London, but there will surely be plenty of production news and details shared to make it quite accessible to Pokemon fans worldwide.

For those who are unfamiliar with the adventure of Detective Pikachu – the character, not the movie – this version of Pikachu is bent on solving mysteries as opposed to participating in battles with other Trainers and Pokemon. The character comes from a Nintendo 3DS game that was released in Japan and gave Detective Pikachu his very own game, albeit a small one.

Ash's Pikachu from the TV show was quite sociable and interactive with humans, and while the movie isn't planned to be based around the Pokemon protagonist and his adventures, this sleuthing Pikachu will be even better at interacting with people. Detective Pikachu can actually talk directly to humans, so the voice actor for Pikachu that's yet to be announced should be an interesting decision no matter who it is.

As far as the casting decisions for the movie, no further details have been revealed. The decision of who will voice Detective Pikachu is obviously one of the most-asked questions, but the movie appears to be in safe hands thanks to those in charge. Rob Letterman, the director of movies such as Shark Tale and the live-action Goosebumps movie, will be directing the film with script-writers Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls) and Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) joining him.

The Detective Pikachu movie begins filming on Jan. 15, but expect to hear more casting news before then.