We've been covering Hollywood's plans for its live-action adaptation of Your Name for quite some time, ever since the project's initial announcement back in September 2017. The project seemed like it was stuck in development hell for a while before The Amazing Spider-Man and 500 Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb boarded the project last year. Now, Deadline is reporting that Webb has departed the project and indie filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung is set to assume directorial duties. Chung has garnered the attention of film studios with well-received features at Cannes and Sundance.
It's interesting that Webb was replaced on the project with a director of Asian descent. Chung is American, having grown up on a farm in Arkansas and graduated college from Yale- his parents are from South Korea. In the wake of Crazy Rich Asians' critical and box office success and the current movement of diversity and inclusion in the U.S., perhaps the film will have Asian leads? One of the biggest fears among North American anime fans when the project was first announced was that the film would be white-washed.
With Webb departing, it seems a new draft of the script has also been commissioned as Deadline reports that the script written by Eric Heisserer (Netflix's Bird Box, Arrival)has been replaced by a draft penned by Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick).
However the project develops, don't expect Makoto Shinkai to contribute or support the film. Previously, the Weathering With You helmer revealed that he has no interest in the Hollywood live-action version. "People often compare their creation to their child, but I'm not much interested in how my child would be treated. There was an announcement that a Hollywood version will be made. While I'm looking forward to how it will go, I also think how it will grow is up to himself (the Hollywood version itself) because it has already left my hand."