Los Angeles, Aug 17 (IANS): The writers of the hit films “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Gravity Falls”, Nicole Perlman and Alex Hirsch, are in negotiations to write a live-action movie on Pokemon.

The news comes after China's media company Legendary Films landed the rights to the "Pokemon" franchise after they were available in early July, reports variety.com.

The movie will be based on the upcoming game "Detective Pikachu".

The deal came two weeks after the Pokemon Go app was released and became a worldwide phenomenon. The augmented reality game allows players to capture, battle and train the Pokemon virtual creatures.

The hugely popular Pokemon Go app recently saw the pocket monsters surge back into the pop culture consciousness. 

Pokemon was introduced in Japan in 1996 and has sold 279 million video games worldwide with 21.5 billion cards shipped to 74 countries, and an animated series spanning 19 seasons.

Universal Pictures will handle distribution of the live-action film outside of Japan.