Raya and the Last Dragon helmer Carlos López Estrada is set to direct the live-action remake remake of Makoto Shinkai’s acclaimed animated feature Your Name, and will rewrite the script based on an initial version from Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer.
López Estrada is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker best known for his films Blindspotting, Summertime, and Best Animated Feature nominee Raya and the Last Dragon. He is currently working on an animated feature documentary and developing a live-action adaptation of Disney’s Robin Hood.
Your Name, currently in development, is based on the 2016 Japanese animated romantic fantasy drama. The original film follows a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school girl in the Japanese countryside who suddenly and inexplicably begin to swap bodies. The film is considered a modern classic in Japan, becoming a massive hit for the country – grossing over $230 million in Japan alone.
Variety notes in this re-imagined version, “two teenagers 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 film is a co-production between Paramount, Bad Robot, and Toho. Toho will handle the film’s distribution in Japan; Paramount will release the picture in the U.S. and all other international territories.
