While we were all sorry to hear that Studio Ghibli, the legendary animation company behind such films as My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away was closing its doors for an indefinite hiatus, the Ghibli team never quite went away, working on TV projects, lending its name to other companies' films and even planning for a theme park. And now comes some really good news: co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has decided to come out of retirement for a new project, and Ghibli will be back in full production to support the feature film.
A little like Steven Soderbergh, Miyazaki himself didn't ever fully retire, instead spending his time on a short entitled Kemushi no Boro (Boro The Caterpillar) for the Ghibli museum. And, inspired by his work on that, he had announced that he intended to turn the project into a full-length animated movie.
As part of a small ceremony in July, Miyazaki brought together some of the main people involved in the film to talk about the idea, with the studio starting to recruit artists later that month. Training for new arrivals will kick off in October and the film should properly be in production a few months after that. There's no official confirmation that the new project will be the full-length version of Boro, but we're just happy that he and his company are back to weave their particular magic on screens.