After the unbelievable success of Pokemon Go, Legendary Entertainment has reported snagged the rights to make a live-action movie starring the cute cartoon monsters.

Although there have been plenty of feature length Pokemon films in the last 20 years, they were all fully animated, much like the anime TV series. The idea for the new movie is that it will feature Pokemon in the real world, much like the app sensation.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, details "on the plot and story of the character" are "under wraps". However, it is known to focus on Detective Pikachu, who recently made his bow in the eponymous Japanese-only 3DS game.

The movie site also claims that Legendary moved quickly to secure the rights after the Pokemon Go craze started because Netflix was hovering in the background. The streaming service is said to have also been "very hot on the property".

No casting options have been released, but Danny DeVito has been cited by fans to voice over Pikachu. 50,000 people signed a petition in April to have DeVito play Pikachu in a forthcoming movie.

DeVito's response, however, suggests it might not happen: "What the f*** is Pokemon?" he asked at the time.