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Marc Webb To Adapt Popular Anime ‘Your Name’

The Amazing Spider-Man and (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, has been given the opportunity to adapt the incredibly popular and rather stunning anime film, Your Name. Considering Webb’s previous works, it seems this project is right down his street; quirky romance with a hint of fantasy.

According to Deadline, Webb is set to direct the film based on Makoto Shinkai’s original story, using the script written by Eric Heisserer, best known for his work on Bird Box and Arrival.

The adaptation will be a product of Paramount and J.J. Abram’s Bad Robot who acquired the rights from Toho. The Japanese Studio will also join Paramount and Bad Robot to produce the movie, dealing with distribution in Japan. So far, Abrams is onboard as the adaptation’s producer, joined by Genki Kawamura who produced the original animated movie, and Lindsey Weber as the executive producer.

Kawamura stated:

“Marc was our first choice to direct this refashioned interpretation of the film from the moment we explored creating an American version. As we saw in (500) Days Of Summer, Marc has a tremendous talent for telling great love stories and in the same way moviegoers were captivated by the original film, we are certain Marc will engage fans of the original and an entirely new audience for these characters’ beautiful journey. With J.J. Abrams producing, Eric Heisserer writing and Marc directing, this project officially has the team we dreamed about.”

If you’re unfamiliar with Your Name, I do highly recommend watching it. The original film is a fantastic journey that follows a bizarre supernatural experience between a young girl called Mitsuha and a young boy called Taki who swap bodies randomly. Entwined in the story are traditional romantic elements, Japanese mysticism, and an unconventional twist that absolutely caught me off guard when I first watched it.

After the anime grossed over 23 billion yen, roughly $190 million, it is clear that there will probably be a high amount of interest around the adaptation once production starts. Obviously, doing a westernized anime adaptation comes with a load of risks. After the release of Alita, I’m quite confident that the collaborative team can deliver quite the spectacle that does stay true to its source material.

Casting is currently unknown at the moment but I will be sure to keep all you anime fans updated. Are you excited to see a Your Name live action movie? Let us know in the comments below.