There’s a new report from Anime Anime (via Anime News Network) that Studio Ghibli’s next film will be from a new director. Producer Toshio Suzuki revealed the news after a screening of a documentary about the making of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Details are expected in December or January. Of the 15-17 feature films (depending on when you start counting) from Studio Ghibli, all but three were directed by either Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata. It’ll be interesting to see who the new director is, and whether he comes from within the company or elsewhere. Suzuki also indicated that Hayao Miyazaki’s next film is about four years out.
Studio Ghibli previously announced that its co-founder Isao Takahata is directing one of its upcoming films, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari). He last wrote and directed My Neighbors The Yamadas in 1999 and is also the writer/director of Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko and Only Yesterday. The new film is an adaptation of a famous 10th century Japanese folktale about a bamboo cutter who discovers a baby within the stalk of a glowing plant and raises her as his own only for her true lineage to be revealed as an adult. It’s supposedly such a well known story in Japan that it’s likely that Takahata has a unique spin for his version.
It’s not clear to me how the latest tidbit about a newcomer directing their next film jives with the previously announced Takahata film, at least in regard to which is next, but it sure seems like Studio Ghibli is keeping busy and that one way or another we – or more accurately Japan – will see a new Ghibli release in 2010.
