According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sequel is officially underway, with Oren Uziel on board to write the script. Uziel is a bit of a pro at the weird videogame adaptation thing, having worked on Paramount’s upcoming (and equally uncanny) Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation. He also worked on Men in Black: International and 22 Jump Street.
The sequel will presumably also star Ryan Reynolds as as most mystery-solving Pikachu to ever Pika, though no other details are known at this time.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opened with solid $58 million this weekend. That gives it a promising 2.8x weekend multiplier, even as it earned 9.8% of its opening weekend (slightly high for a kid flick) on Thursday night. Yes, I was hoping it would break out bigger, and yes the soft-ish $41 million opening in China raises an eyebrow or two, but Legendary and Warner Bros.’ $150 million-budgeted comic fantasy just scored the biggest opening weekend ever for a video game movie. It earned $11 million more than the $47 million launch, in 2001, of Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider.