Marc Webb has signed on to direct a reimagined version of the 2016 animated movie Your Name for Paramount and Bad Robot, which acquired the rights from Japanese company Toho, Collider has learned.

Bad Robot’s J.J. Abrams will produce along with Genki Kawamura, who produced the original film, while Lindsey Weber will serve as an executive producer on the project. Eric Heisserer (Arrival) is writing the reimagined screenplay, which will now follow a young Native American woman living in a rural area and a young man from Chicago who 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.

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Image via Amazon Studios

Your Name was a huge hit when it first came out in 2016 and the English-language remake called for a major director who has experience with both romance and big-budget filmmaking. Webb fits that description to a tee, having previously directed the Amazing Spider-Man movies starring Andrew Garfield, as well as the modern classic rom-com (500) Days of Summer.

"Marc was our first choice to direct this refashioned interpretation of the film from the moment we explored creating an American version," said Kawamura. "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."

Bad Robot's next release is a little movie called Star Wars: Episode IX... although it won't actually be called that when it hits theaters this December. While the world waits patiently for that title, I recommend checking out the company's under-seen Overlord, which genre fans should have a lot of fun with.

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Image via Toho
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Image via Toho