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Animatrix's Koji Morimoto Co-Directs Japanese-Italian Stop-Motion/2D Animation Film Shinku

Bicchū Takahashi Machizukuri Kenkyūsho (Studio Machiken), a new anime studio founded last year in Okayama Prefecture, announced on Sunday that it is co-producing a feature film tentatively titled Shinku (Deep Crimson) with Italy's Sattva Films. The project will feature a blend of stop-motion animation and hand-drawn 2D scenes directed by anime director and visual artist Kōji Morimoto (The Animatrix, Memories, Genius Party). The film will begin production this fall, and is expected to debut in 2021.

The film expands upon the characters and setting of Francesco Filippi and Studio Mistral's "Mani Rosse" ("Red Hands"), a short film which debuted last year. In the 30-minute short, a daydreaming boy named Ernest befriends Luna, a neighborhood girl whose red-tinged art belies dark family secrets.

Filippi is directing the Shinku project, and he is also penning the script alongside Keiko Ichiguchi. Morimoto is handling the 2D hand-drawn segments of the film, and Hiroshi Sasaki (Gunbuster, Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo) is the art director for those segments at Machiken. Gainax co-founder and veteran anime producer Hiroaki Inoue (Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise, Gunbuster, Tenchi Muyo!, Memories), Michele Fasano, Paul Thiltges, and Renato Rivera Rusca are credited as producers. Sattva Films, Paul Thiltges Distribution, RAI, and Studio Machiken are credited for production.

Sources: Press release, Shinku press conference

Update: Fasano clarified that the film is expected to debut in 2021.