Lee Isaac Chung, whose upcoming filmMinariearned rave reviews at Sundance, has been tapped to rewrite and direct the English-language remake ofYour Namefor Paramount, Toho andJ.J. Abrams' company Bad Robot.
Abrams will produce along withGenki Kawamura, who produced the original film, whileLindsey Weberwill serve as an executive producer on the project.Eric Heisserer(Arrival) andEmily V. Gordon(The Big Sick) penned earlier drafts of the script, and Chung will work off of Gordon’s draft.Marc Webb(The Amazing Spider-Man) was previously attached to direct.
The story, which has been reimagined a bit from the original movie, follows two teenagers who discover they are magically and intermittently swapping bodies. When a disaster threatens to upend their lives, they must journey to meet and save their worlds.
The original 2016 anime movie was a romantic fantasy drama that became an instant classic in Japan, where it grossed $303 million. Multiple studios bid on the remake rights toYour Namewhen they went on the market in 2017, but Abrams was a big fan of the original and made sure that Bad Robot and Paramount came out on top. Toho will handle distribution of the film in Japan, while Paramount will release the film in all other territories.
The son of Korean immigrants, Chung grew up on a small farm in rural Arkansas before attending Yale and abandoning medical school for a career as a filmmaker. His debut featureMunyurangabopremiered at Cannes, and led to A24 andBrad Pitt’s company Plan B backingMinari, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Sundance earlier this year. Not only is he a good fit forYour Name, but he’s a great “get” by Paramount and Bad Robot, as the sky is the limit for this talented filmmaker.
Steven Yeunstars inMinari, which follows a Korean family who move to Arkansas to start a farm in the 1980s, and the film is expected to be a major awards contender this year. To readMatt Goldberg’s review ofMinariout of Sundance,click here. Chung’s hiring was first reported byDeadline.
