Entertainment news magazine Variety revealed on Thursday that Justice Smith (The Get Down) will star as the lead actor in Legendary Entertainment's planned live-action Pokémon film.

As with previous reports, the current report refers to the film's title as "Detective Pikachu," and it will will feature the Detective Pikachu character, which debuted in the February 2016 Meitantei Pikachu Nintendo 3DS game.

Rob Letterman (Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens, Goosebumps) is directing the film, with scripts by Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls) and Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy).

The film is slated to start production this year. TOHO will distribute the film in Japan, while Universal Pictures will distribute the film outside of Japan.

Legendary Entertainment acquired the live-action film rights for the Pokémon franchise in July 2016. The Hollywood Reporter reported in April 2016 that Legendary Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Sony were engaged in an auction for the rights. Warner already released several of the animated Pokémon films, starting with Pokemon: The First Movie in North American theaters in 1999. Warner then released Pokemon 2000 - The Movie and 2001's Pokemon 3 - The Movie.

Image via Justice Smith's Twitter account

Source: Variety (Justin Kroll)