A lot has changed for Minari director Lee Isaac Chung signed on to helm a live-action remake of hit anime Your Name. For one thing, his Korean-American drama won a bunch of awards, and was nominated for a whopping six Oscars. He’s now one of the most sought-after filmmakers around, and that means a very crowded schedule. You can probably see where this is going.
Deadline reports Chung has exited Your Name due to scheduling conflicts. The film, about a boy and girl who inexplicably swap bodies and must figure out why before the change becomes permanent, is set up at Paramount and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot.
This isn’t the first creative departure from Your Name. At one point Arrival writer Eric Heisserer penned a screenplay that apparently didn’t fly with the movie’s original studio, Toho. So the loss of Chung isn’t likely to be a death knell for the film, but a chance to start over and give it a fresh look. Considering the original made over $350M worldwide back in 2016, and is still looked at as one of the best anime films in recent times, it’s too lucrative a project to let go.
