‘Minari’ Director Lee Isaac Chung Parts Ways With Paramount And Bad Robot’s ‘Your Name’ Adaptation

EXCLUSIVE: Minari director Lee Isaac Chung has parted ways with the Paramount and Bad Robot adaptation of Your Name. Sources indicate scheduling conflicts ultimately led to Chung leaving the project.

Insiders say Paramount is acting fast to find his replacement, having reached out to several potential suitors. Chung landed the job after his critically acclaimed drama Minari became the darling of last year’s Sundance and would take that momentum all the way to a Best Picture nomination at this year’s Oscars.

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Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams will produce along with Genki Kawamura, who produced the original. Toho will handle distribution of the film in Japan with Paramount releasing in all other territories.

The original anime pic is still one of Japan’s biggest hits, grossing $303 million in Japan alone, and when the rights went on the market in 2017, it was instantly one of the hotter rights packages on the market. With Abrams being such a big fan of the original, Paramount and Bad Robot moved fast to acquire the rights to the hit.

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