By Rafael Motamayor
It’s been a while since we last heard any news about the live-action Hollywood adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. But it seems things are moving along, as we finally have some promising hiring news in the form of a new writer-director: Lee Isaac Chung.
As Deadline reports, Chung is taking over the directing duties for Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Productions’ reimagining of the film from The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Marc Webb. He’ll utilize a draft penned by Oscar-nominated writer Emily V. Gordon. Genki Kawamura, who produced the original film, is back to produce this adaptation.
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Shortly after Your Name. became a global sensation, J.J. Abrams secured the rights for a live-action remake of the film to be written by Eric Heisserer, who was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on the sci-fi film Arrival.
Even if live-action animation, especially when made in the West, don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to quality, having Heisserer and Abrams attached were at least causes to be cautiously optimistic.
As it often happens, the project quickly went quiet. It wouldn’t be until last year that we heard Webb had signed on to direct, and we also got our first plot details: the reimagined adaptation would now follow a young Native American woman living in a rural area, and a young man from Chicago, who would be swapping bodies. Shinkai himself was involved with the project, and had approval for all scripts.
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Now, it seems the project has changed, as Lee Isaac Chung will not be working off Heisserer’s script, but Gordon’s. Though Chung hasn’t directed anything remotely sci-fi, his two feature films have got raving reviews and won awards at film festivals.
And if you want someone to tackle such a spectacular yet emotional and intimate story, who better than someone with experience in personal and emotional movies? Now the big question is, will RADWIMPS return for the soundtrack?
