News

Ghibli to Start Two Features Over Next Three Years

Award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) gave a speech to his Studio Ghibli production staff in which he announced that they will start two feature-length works over the next three years. The studio's "Itsumo no Ghibli Nikki" ("The Habitual Ghibli Diary") describes the speech in a November 27 entry. According to the diary, the speech discussed how the studio will weather the increasingly grim conditions the world is facing. Miyazaki reportedly emphasized that the two new feature-length works will have young staffers at their core. The diary also posted a blurred image (shown at right) of the diagram for the next three years that Miyazaki presented, but captioned it, "The details are still secret."

In a November 17 entry, the diary revealed that the preparation room for Ghibli's next film has been set up on the third floor of Ghibli's studio #1. The room's poster (pictured at left) says, "Preparation Room: Maro & Nayo: 20XX Opening." The poster's date has been deliberately blurred in the picture in the diary's entry, and the picture's caption says, "The opening date is a secret." Nayo is the nickname of a staffer at Ghibli who working with studio co-founder Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko) on development for Ghibli's next film.

Studio Ghibli President Koji Hoshino revealed last February that "directors Takahata and Goro Miyazaki are both developing works" for release after Miyazaki's Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on a Cliff) opens this summer. Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son, served as the Ghibli Museum's first curator and directed Tales from Earthsea.

Source: Nausicaa.net