Genki Kawamura On Adapting ‘Your Identify’ For Hollywood With J.J. Abrams – Deadline

There’s been a lot celebratory speak right here on the Tokyo Movie Competition a few new daybreak of internationally-minded Japanese artists led by administrators similar to Hirokazu Kore-eda, Makoto Shinkai, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 

One of many key artistic voices usually talked about amongst this new Japanese set is Genki Kawamura, recognized internationally by audiences as the author of If Cats Disappeared from the World, one in all Japanese literature’s most profitable modern novels, and the filmmaker who introduced that e-book and titles similar to Suzume, Weathering with You, and, most lately, Kore-eda’s Cannes prize-winning Monster to the massive display screen. 

Born in Yokohama in 1979, Kawamura started his profession at leisure juggernaut Toho, the place he was recognized early as a promising expertise. He reduce his tooth on pics like Tetsuya Nakashima’s 2010 function Confessions, which was shortlisted for the Finest Worldwide Function Oscar, and Mamoru Hosoda’s The Boy and the Beast.

He subsequent caught warmth with the 2016 anime your title., a world field workplace hit that grossed over 40 billion yen ($350+ million) on the field workplace and was awarded Finest Animated Movie from the Los Angeles Movie Critics Affiliation and Finest Animated Movie Award at Sitges. Kawamura is presently co-producing an English-language remake of the pic alongside J.J. Abrams for Paramount with Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung writing and directing. 

In 2017, he arrange the unbiased manufacturing hub STORY Inc. with Yoshihiro Furusawa, and his directorial debut on the firm A Hundred Flowers debuted at San Sebastian, the place Kawamura grew to become the primary Japanese filmmaker to win the competition’s Silver Shell award for Finest Director. Beneath, Kawamura speaks with Deadline about his profession, Japan‘s new technology of filmmakers, present challenges within the native market, and dealing with Abrams on the Hollywood your title remake.

DEADLINE: Firstly, how are you? You’ve had a really busy yr?

GENKI KAWAMURA: It was particularly busy in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, my directorial debut which I additionally wrote, A Hundred Flowers, primarily based on my novel, was chosen for the Competitors part on the seventieth version of the San Sebastian Worldwide Movie Competition. I received the Silver Shell for Finest Director Award for the movie. The movie was launched in lots of nations world wide, so I went to many movie festivals and campaigns for it.

On the identical time, I used to be producing Suzume and Monster. In 2023, Suzume premiered in competitors on the Berlin Movie Competition and was launched worldwide. It grossed over 415 million {dollars} worldwide, changing into the highest-grossing Japanese movie ever on the worldwide field workplace. Monster received the Finest Screenplay and Queer Palme awards on the 76th Cannes Worldwide Movie Competition and is presently touring festivals world wide. I’m presently producing a brand new live-action movie primarily based on my novel April Come She Will and an authentic animated movie with Naoko Yamada, the director of A Silent Voice, which might be launched subsequent yr.

DEADLINE: As anybody who checks your filmography can see, you’re extraordinarily prolific. How do you retain up this tempo?

KAWAMURA: I’m very prolific, however as my position modifications by tasks from novelist, screenwriter, director, and producer, I’m able to preserve a contemporary thoughts on every challenge. Most of my concepts come to me whereas I’m concurrently engaged on a number of tasks. After all of the thread that connects all my work, whether or not it’s in novels, movies, or animations is “storytelling”.

DEADLINE: You’ve been on the middle of what many are describing as a brand new golden technology of worldwide Japanese filmmakers. Are you able to inform me slightly about your profession? How you bought began and ended up right here at present with STORY Inc.

KAWAMURA: I’m tremendously impressed by the actions of Japanese filmmakers of my technology, similar to Makoto Shinkai and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. I began my profession as a movie producer at Toho, a film firm, and whereas making live-action movies similar to Confessions and Villain, I started writing novels on the age of 30. My debut novel, If Cats Disappeared From The World was printed in 28 nations and bought over 2 million copies worldwide. Across the identical time, I started making authentic animated movies similar to Mirai with Mamoru Hosoda and your title. with Makoto Shinkai. In 2017, I based an organization known as STORY inc. It was a small planning and manufacturing firm consisting of twelve artistic producers. The core members had been the identical individuals who labored collectively on your title. I began the corporate to work carefully with administrators, screenwriters, and authentic authors, and to create movies with an emphasis on ‘STORY’-telling.

Since then, we’ve got made Weathering With You and Suzume with Makoto Shinkai, and The Makanai with Hirokazu Kore-eda. We’re additionally engaged on an authentic animation movie with Naoko Yamada, director of A Silent Voice, which might be launched subsequent yr.

DEADLINE: Worldwide readers maybe first grew to become conscious of you from the success of Your Identify. Did you count on that movie to be so beloved? And what precisely do you suppose helps Japanese movies journey properly?

KAWAMURA: I feel three components established a brand new commonplace for Japanese animation options that grew to become extensively accepted: Makoto Shinkai’s visible sense, the robust story created by the great workforce, and the music that collaborated with Radwimps. My mission is to suggest a narrative and visuals that use complicated layers of sensitivity that’s distinctive to the Japanese. I imagine that we, the Japanese, have the power to invent one-of-a-kind tales and characters. Right here is one more reason why I selected Story because the title of my firm.

DEADLINE: Lee Isaac Chung is presently adapting Your Identify. How’s that course of going? How concerned are you? And the way is the expertise of working with Hollywood studios?

KAWAMURA: I’m presently engaged on the script with Carlos Lopez Estrada, director of Raya and the Final Dragon, together with Dangerous Robotic and JJ Abrams. I’m concerned on this challenge as a producer. The progress is gradual due to the pandemic and now, all of the strikes, however it’s transferring ahead steadily. I’m taking part as a “storyteller” as I at all times do, whether or not it’s in Japan or within the U.S.

DEADLINE: You produced Kore-eda’s final movie Monster. How did that come about? And the way would you describe the expertise?

KAWAMURA: I used to be growing an authentic story with screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto. We got here up with an excellent story, so we took it to director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Youngsters play an important position on this story, and I needed to ask a director who excels in directing kids. As an individual whose job is “storytelling,” I used to be very honored and overjoyed to obtain the Finest Screenplay Award and the Queer Palme Award on the Cannes Movie Competition for this movie.

DEADLINE: You’ve traveled to worldwide festivals with Suzume, Monster, and Weathering with You. How necessary do you suppose the European competition circuit is to Asian and particularly, Japanese movies?

KAWAMURA: I’ve been touring movie festivals from final yr to this yr and realized that movie festivals and awards are very efficient in bringing Japanese movies to the worldwide market.

DEADLINE: What are the present challenges within the Japanese market?

KAWAMURA: I really feel that extra numerous expertise ought to emerge, and extra numerous movies needs to be made.

DEADLINE: What’s subsequent for you? 

KAWAMURA: My novel A Hundred Flowers has already been printed in Asian nations, France, and Italy, however it would lastly be printed within the US and UK subsequent yr. As well as, I’m now engaged on a brand new novel. It’s the story of a horse and a lady. Will probably be printed subsequent yr. Additionally, I’m producing a live-action film April Come She Will primarily based on my novel, and an animation film with an authentic story by Naoko Yamada, the director of A Silent Voice, which might be launched subsequent yr.