I hope you’re ready for a live-action Pokémon movie, because a bunch of movie studios are in a massive bidding war to make it for you. So says The Hollywood Reporter, at least. Movie studios based in the U.S., China, and Japan are all bidding for the rights to make the live-action movie, and you better believe that the bidding is pretty darn fierce. The movie companies engaged in this bidding war include Legendary, Warner Bros., and Sony. Particularly interesting is the fact that Legendary is a Chinese company (now under the Dalian Wanda Group), which lends an interesting cultural facet to this bidding war. A Chinese company owning the rights to a Japanese franchise could very well end up being a bit of an issue given the tensions that exist between these two countries.
Beyond that, the thought of a live-action movie based on the much-beloved Pokémon franchise brings to mind a lot of anime live-action adaptations both past (uh, Dragonball: Evolution, anyone) and future (Ghost in the Shell). That being said… how much do you want to bet that Tom Holland (or Asa Butterfield or another white kid) will end up playing Ash? “But they never said he was Asian,” I can hear them crying already. Sigh.
(via Polygon)
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