Hayao Miyazaki is coming out of retirement | Little White Lies

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Hayao Miyaza­ki is com­ing out of retirement

24 Feb 2017

Words by Little White Lies

Elderly man with glasses intently working at a desk, surrounded by various items and office equipment.
Elderly man with glasses intently working at a desk, surrounded by various items and office equipment.
The leg­endary Stu­dio Ghi­b­li direc­tor is report­ed­ly work­ing on a new fea­ture-length project.

It’s offi­cial: Hayao Miyaza­ki, arguably Japan’s best known and most beloved liv­ing film­mak­er, is report­ed­ly com­ing out of retire­ment to start work on a new Stu­dio Ghi­b­li film.

The ani­ma­tion mae­stro announced back in 2013 that he was step­ping away from direct­ing indef­i­nite­ly, but now Ghi­b­li pro­duc­er Toshio Suzu­ki has con­firmed that Miyaza­ki is busy devel­op­ing on a fea­ture-length project which began as a short film called Kemushi no Boro.

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Suzu­ki broke the news at a pre-Oscars inter­view with Pixar direc­tor Pete Doc­ter in Los Ange­les, where the Ghi­b­li co-pro­duced The Red Tur­tle is in the mix for the Acad­e­my Award for Best Ani­mat­ed Feature.

Miyaza­ki has appar­ent­ly spent the last few years learn­ing how to ani­mate on a com­put­er, and his come­back will mark his and the studio’s first full ven­ture into CG animation.

We’re not entire­ly sure what to make of that – espe­cial­ly giv­en that in Decem­ber 2016 Miyaza­ki referred to an AI-based CG ani­ma­tion pro­gramme as ​“an insult to life itself”– but it’s cer­tain­ly an intrigu­ing devel­op­ment. We’ll keep you updat­ed as and when the sto­ry develops.

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