Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot have acquired the rights to hit Japanese anime film “Your Name” and are developing a live-action version, the companies announced Wednesday.
The film, created, written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, follows a teenage boy and girl from different backgrounds who discover they can swap bodies. They then race to cross space and time to find a way to meet and stop an impending disaster.
“Your Name” grossed $355 million worldwide — including $303 million in Japan, where it occupied the top spot on the charts for a record-breaking 12 non-consecutive weeks.
J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber will produce the film for Bad Robot, along with Genki Kawamura, who produced the original “Your Name.” Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer will handle the screenplay. Toho Co., which produced the original animated film, will distribute the live-action movie in Japan.
“We are excited to collaborate with an extremely talented team in Hollywood,” Yoshishige Shimatani, CEO of Toho Co., said in a statement. “And to create with them a live action version of the iconic Japanese film ‘Your Name.’”
“Just like in the film it feels like a dream,” Genki Kawamura said in the statement. “Mr. Abrams and his team have captivated audiences in their masterful reinvention of known properties. 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. The meetings so far have been creatively stimulating with fantastic ideas that no doubt will make for a great movie. I am greatly honored to work with these incredible creators in bringing to audiences the Hollywood live action version of ‘Your Name.’”
“‘Your Name’ is a film created with the innate imaginations of a Japanese team and put together in a domestic medium,” Shinkai said in the statement. “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.”