J.J. Abrams Planning Live-Action Adaptation of Anime Your Name
Despite off being busy in a galaxy far, far away J.J. Abrams has his sights set on Japan, namely a live-action adaptation of much-loved anime movie Your Name.
Even though he may have abandoned Paramount for Lucasfilm, the studio is still keen to work with The Force Awakens director on this new, somewhat controversial project, given Hollywood’s appalling track record with live-action anime adaptations (I’m looking at you Ghost in the Shell).
But Abrams is employing a softly-softly approach to the adaptation; he’s producing alongside Genki Kawamura, who helped shepherd the 2016 original, and has the Toho Co. team involved too. Plus he's won the blessing of the anime's writer and director, Makoto Shinkai.
"Your Name is a film created with the innate imaginations of a Japanese team and put together in a domestic medium," Shinkai said in a statement via The Hollywood Reporter. "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."
Oscar-nominated Arrival writer Eric Heisserer is attached to write the adaptation which will focus on two small-town high-school students who inexplicably start possessing each other’s bodies in random day-long bouts. A weird relationship develops between the pair…
With Abrams so busy, he and his production company Bad Robot will be looking for a suitable director.
So far, no release date has been confirmed.
