Spider-Man’s Marc Webb to direct Your Name remake for Paramount, Bad Robot

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The 2016 animated movie YOUR NAME was a huge hit in Japan, so of course, it wasn’t going to take long for an American remake to get into the works. Now Toho, Paramount and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot are even closer to bringing the remake to life having hired THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and (500) DAYS OF SUMMER director Marc Webb to direct the new version of the love story.

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Paramount and Bad Robot acquired the remake rights to the movie from Toho in 2017, with Abrams set to produce alongside Genki Kawamura, who produced the original, and Lindsey Weber, who will executive produce. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer (ARRIVAL) is still attached to pen the screenplay, which will reportedly follow “a young Native American woman living in a rural area and a young man from Chicago discover they are magically and intermittently swapping bodies.” Soon an impending disaster threatens everything, and the two must find each other in order to save their worlds.

Kawamura spoke about putting his faith in the hands of Webb, Abrams and Heisserer, saying there’s no better team to bring the movie to life:

“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.”

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The movie was not a massive hit in North America during its run, making about $5 million from a limited theatrical run. However, the movie was a massive hit overseas making over $230 million in Japan, becoming one of their highest-grossing movies ever, and added to that success is another $80 million from China.

As for the remake, the team has nailed the directing choice with Webb, who between SUMMER and the SPIDER-MAN movies has proven his skills at developing emotionally resonant stories. Add in some experience working with a big budget for the fantasy elements of the remake, and YOUR NAME has a perfect mixture of drama and spectacle to fit right into Webb’s skill set.