'Your Name' Anime to Get U.S. Live-Action Remake Produced By J.J. Abrams
Anime phenomenon "Your Name" has been picked up by Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot for the development of a live-action remake. The original Japanese animated film made a huge splash last year in East Asia while generating enormous buzz worldwide.
"Your Name" topped the Japanese box office in 2016, beating out such contenders as "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and "Shin Godzilla." The Hollywood Reporter notes that it earned $233 million (￥23.6 billion) in Japan alone. The film met with great commercial success in China, the world's second-biggest movie market, as well as South Korea. "Your Name" was released in the U.S. in April and has since grossed over $5 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo.
The film was written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, who adapted his own novel of the same name. Its producers included Noritaka Kawaguchi and Genki Kawamura, among others. "Your Name" was released by Toho Co. Ltd. to Japanese cinemas on August 26, 2017.
The massive box office success of "Your Name" came as something of a surprise. The Japan Times says that the film wasn't developed with a global audience in mind, and the producers had no idea it was going to be such a big hit in Japan.
Paramount Pictures must be hoping that the property can strike a zeitgeist once again in the U.S. as a Western live-action movie. The involvement of Abrams, who successfully reinvigorated the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" film franchises, could help make that happen. But Paramount and Bad Robot will also be working with Toho's Kawamura, one of the anime's Japanese producers. Eric Heisserer, the Oscar-nominated writer of "Arrival," has been tapped to write the screenplay of the "Your Name" remake.
Variety reports that Kawamura says the U.S. movie deal is like a dream come true. "Mr. Abrams and his team have captivated audiences in their masterful reinvention of known properties," said Kawamura. "And Mitsuha and Taki have found a perfect narrator, Mr. Heisserer, to tell their sci-fi infused love story, which gave the film such drive."
