With the success of their previous animated films, and the cultural ubiquity that Pokémon Go earned the franchise last year, many have been wondering when, or even if, a live-action Pokémon would hit the silver screen. Fans were delighted to find out last year that a live-action Detective Pikachu movie was in the works and that the film found a director in Tom Letterman who had previously directed Monsters Vs. Aliens and the recent Goosebumps film adaptation starring Jack Black. Now, it appears the film is taking the next step towards its reality, as a production start date has been announced.

A new report from Omega Underground is stating that the live-action Detective Pikachu movie is scheduled to begin filming in the United Kingdom beginning January 15th, 2018. This version of Pikachu first appeared in the Japanese Nintendo 3DS eShop game Great Detective Pikachu, which featured a talking version of Pikachu as a super sleuth Sherlock Holmes. There’s no word whether or not the film will follow the events of the game, but given the London, U.K. filming location, one can reasonably expect the film to pay tribute to classic  private investigators like Sherlock Holmes.

Aside from Rob Letterman director and Alex Hirsch and Nicole Perlman’s work on the script, no additional crew or cast for the film have been confirmed. Here’s hoping that before filming begins, fans can convince Danny Devito to reconsider their pleas for him to voice detective Pikachu. What do you guys think about the Detective Pikachu movie scheduling its filming start date? Let us know in the comments below!

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