Ghibli Producer Suzuki: Hayao Miyazaki is Preparing to Work on New Feature Film

The joint communications news distribution site 47News (Japan Press Network) is reporting on Friday that according to Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, Hayao Miyazaki is starting preparations to work on a new feature film. The news service stated that Suzuki revealed the news at an event in the United States on Thursday.

Suzuki stated at the event that Miyazaki showed him the storyboards for the new work. Suzuki said, "Even now [Miyazaki] is working very hard in Tokyo to create."

During the Owaranai Hito Miyazaki Hayao (The Man Who Is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki) television special on NHK that aired in November, Miyazaki reported that he wants to return to making an anime feature film.

Miyazaki had declared in September 2013 that he was retiring from directing feature films.

Most recently, Miyazaki has been working on "Kemushi no Boro" (Boro the Caterpillar), a planned CG short for the Ghibli Museum. The NHK special in November revealed, however, that Miyazaki was not satisfied with the CG project as a short, and he presented a project proposal for a feature-length film this past August. Despite not officially receiving a green-light for the feature film, Miyazaki decided to start animation work on the project anyway. He plans on creating storyboards for about 100 cuts of footage.

The NHK special didn't confirm if the project proposal Miyazaki presented last August would be for a project related to "Kemushi no Boro."

Miyazaki rose to prominence in the 1970s on such television anime series as Lupin III, Future Boy Conan, and Sherlock Hound. He directed his first feature film, Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, in 1979. He then adapted the beginning of his Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga into an anime film in 1984, before he and fellow director Isao Takahata founded Studio Ghibli.

With Ghibli, Miyazaki helmed the feature films Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, and finally, 2013's The Wind Rises. He also co-produced Takahata's directorial efforts and directed smaller projects such as the "experimental film" On Your Mark and Ghibli Museum Shorts such as Mei and the Kitten Bus and Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess.

Spirited Away remains the highest earning film ever at the Japanese box office, 15 years after it opened in 2001. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film in 2003.​