on today’s episode of ‘please don’t make that’….. we have a 2017 pikachu movie!!!!!
Billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Legendary Entertainment LLC will team up with the developers of the popular Pokemon Go game to make a live-action film based on the creatures.
Legendary, which is partnering with The Pokemon Co., will begin production in 2017 for the movie, which will feature Detective Pikachu, according to a statement from the companies on Wednesday. Toho Co. will distribute the film in Japan and Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures will do so internationally, according to the statement.Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-21/wanda-s-legendary-to-make-pokemon-film-universal-to-distribute
This move to make a Pikachu movie is quite obviously based on the popularity of Pokémon Go rather than an honest desire to expand the Pokémon universe…
Which is kind of gross if you ask me.
It’s exploitative rather than creative.
It doesn’t come from the heart, which is kind of necessary if you’re planning on making something nice for kids.
It doesn’t do anything… really… except play off the free marketing Pokémon Go is giving the Pokémon franchise.
How the Pokémon Co. doesn’t see that is beyond me. But maybe they’ve lost their way in the corporate world, maybe the art no longer matters to them, maybe making kids happy is irrelevant… and the only thing relevant is getting nice juicy brand licensing deals.
But hey… I’m just thinking out loud here…
Dalian Wanda Group – An Update (9/02/2016)
Real estate and entertainment conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co expects to seal two billion-dollar film-related deals in the United States this year…
…
In January, Wang splashed $3.5 billion to buy a controlling stake in U.S. film studio Legendary Entertainment, behind hits such as “Jurassic World”, making Wanda the first Chinese firm to own a major Hollywood studio.
Source: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN10Y13K
SO… A Note…
Legendary Entertainment, the maker of the future Pokémon movie, is owned by Dalian Wanda Group… which is owned indirectly by Wang Jianlin (it seems through a family investment company).
Dalian Wanda is continuing to focus on making safe bets in the movie business… they’re looking to purchase one of the ‘big six’ movie production companies and increase revenue sharply from their ‘cultural division’.
~ more information to come ~
Except Detective Pikachu is based on a game by the same name.
I know that… I’m not saying the movie is based off of Pokemon Go. I’m saying that Pokemon Go’s popularity is what made Legendary Entertainment decided to make the movie.
I feel that’s why they announced plans to make the movie during the media fervor over Pokemon Go.
Basically I guess I was trying to say that they seem to be approaching everything with a profit motive and that bothers me…