Get ready, otakus. Hollywood is going to try another round of anime adaptations, but J.J. Abrams will be leading the charge this time. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed the director is making a live-action adaptation of Your Name with Paramount Pictures.
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According to the announcement, Abrams will be joined by an all-star team for the film. Paramount Pictures has tapped Eric Heisserer to write the screenplay for Your Name. The writer is best-known for his work on Arrival, and Heisserer nabbed an Oscar nomination for the film.
Paramount Pictures will produce the film alongside Bad Robot, a studio run by Abrams. Lindsey Weber will also oversee the film with Genki Kawamura, the original film’s producer.
If you are not familiar with Your Name, then you should know the film is the most successful anime feature of all-time. The movie made its debut last year in Japan and quickly became an phenomenon as it earned more money than any of Studio Ghibli’s iconic films. Your Name managed to overcome Spirited Away at the box-office to become the highest-grossing anime feature at the worldwide market, and Paramount Pictures has made a deal with creator Makoto Shinkai to bring the film to life.
Shinkai has commented on the newly announced adaptation in a personal statement. You can read up on his thoughts below:
“Your Name is a film created with the innate imaginations of a Japanese team and put together in a domestic medium,” the director revealed.
“When such a work is imbued with Hollywood filmmaking, we may see new possibilities that we had been completely unaware of. I am looking forward to the live-action film with excited anticipation.”
Of course, fans do have their concerns about the live-action adaptation. Hollywood is not known for its track-record with the medium, but Your Name has a more straightforward story to adapt than, say, Dragon Ball Z. The film tells the story of two teenagers who learn they can swap bodies. As the film continues, fans learn the pair are also separated by time and space, but an impending disaster will force the two to work together to prevent a tragedy from occurring.
If you want to learn more about the film, you can read ComicBook’s review of it here.
