Acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki stated in an NHK TV special last weekend that he wants to make a comeback to making an animated feature film after retiring a few years ago.
Known as the legend behind Ghibli classics like Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki has been making movies for longer than some of us have been alive.
The title he’s been working on is “Kemushi no Boro: (Boro the Catterpillar) which is a planned CG short for the Ghibli Museum. However, he’s revealed that he’s not satisfied with just a short; he proposed a feature-length film in August. He also said the film will take him five years to make, and he would be 80 when it is done, possibly marking one of the last films he will ever make.
The feature film hasn’t quite been given the green light but Miyazaki has decided to start work on it anyway; with plans to create storyboards for about 100 cuts of footage.
In the meantime, he will continue making shorts for the Studio Ghibli Museum in Tokyo.