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Jonathan Krisel to Direct Pokémon Detective Pikachu Sequel Film

Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Friday that Jonathan Krisel (Portlandia) is in negotiations to direct the sequel to Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. live-action Pokémon Detective Pikachu film. Chris Galletta (The Kings of Summer) is writing the script.

Entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter originally reported in 2019 that Oren Uziel (Sonic the Hedgehog film, The Clover Paradox, 22 Jump Street) was penning the script.

Rob Letterman's live-action Pokémon Detective Pikachu film opened in May 2019. It earned an estimated cumulative total of US$140,788,081 in the United States, and an estimated US$279,500,000 internationally, for an estimated cumulative total of US$420,288,081 worldwide.

The film had the highest U.S. opening weekend box office for any film adaptation of a video game (unadjusted for inflation), with its US$54 million opening weekend earnings topping Lara Croft Tomb Raider's US$47.7 million in 2001.

The film stars Justice Smith as main character Tim Goodman and Ryan Reynolds as Detective Pikachu. Letterman directed the film, with a script by Nicole Perlman and Letterman.

The film is based on the Detective Pikachu game, which shipped for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in 2016 and launched in the West in March 2018. The Pokémon Company announced in 2019 that a Detective Pikachu game would launch on Nintendo Switch.

Source: Deadline (Justin Kroll)