Although he called time on his career (again) following 2013’s The Wind Rises, it’s been no secret that legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has been working away on another project for the past few years.
Iconic animation house Studio Ghibli re-opened its doors to work on the feature back in 2017, while producer Toshio Suzuki confirmed the following year that Miyazaki had been working on the project for the past couple of years, although it was still “three or four years” away from completion.
Well, fast-forward three or four years, and Miyazaki himself has now confirmed to The New York Times that he is indeed directing the film, which as previously reported is inspired by Genzaburō Yoshino’s 1937 book Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka (a.k.a. How Do You Live?).
Aside from confirming that source material, reportedly one of the filmmaker’s favourite books, the now 80-year-old Miyazaki refused to offer up any further details on the project save for his reason for coming out of retirement: Because I wanted to.”
The most recent release from Studio Ghibli was this year’s Earwig and the Witch, which was directed by Miyazaki’s son Goro Miyazaki and marked Ghibli’s first fully CG-animated feature.
Via Deadline