2011-01-News
Arrietty US Release Pushed to 2012
Deadline.com is reporting that the US theatrical release of Arrietty is set for February 17, 2012.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter and David Mankins for the news.
--LLin 04:03, 27 January 2011 (UTC)
Studio Ghibli BDs in Australia
The Ghibli Blog has scans from Madman that reveal Laputa: Castle in the Sky and My Neighbors the Yamadas will be released in Australia on April 20.
Thanks to Daniel Thomas for the news.
--LLin 02:01, 25 January 2011 (UTC)
Arrietty in the West
Frank Marshall's Twitter feed revealed some of the English voice cast for Arrietty:
- Bridgit Mendler as Arrietty
- David Henrie and Carol Burnett as the human "beans"
- Amy Poehler and Will Arnett as Arrietty's parents
Marshall also confirms the film will have a North American theatrical run but no dates are set. In the UK Optimum is set to release the film in theaters "this summer".
Thanks to Noah Oskow, Daniel Zelter and Daniel Alston for the news.
--LLin 02:24, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
More on Ghibli's Five Year Plan
Miyazaki and Suzuki explained the intention of the five-year plan in Cut magazine's September issue.
According to Suzuki, Miyazaki suggested the five-year plan after Ponyo finished production in 2008. Miyazaki felt the studio was facing a dire future. People think that Studio Ghibli is always generating blockbusters but the box office take has decreased:
- Spirited Away: 30.4 billion yen
- Howl's Moving Castle: 19.6 billion yen
- Ponyo: 15.5 billion yen
Miyazaki: I thought Ponyo made money more (laughs). Our studio's situation is more serious than we think. In the past we could spend two or three years without making a film due to DVD sales and the secondary fees but the difficult times have come at last. (laughs)"
The cost to maintain the studio has risen because Ghibli employs many young animators.
Miyazaki: "It's a gamble. It's an adventure to make one film in one year. But the money we must collect becomes the amount of one year. It's impossible to let a rookie carry two years of Ghibli on his back".
Suzuki: Ghibli exists as the studio to create Miya-san's films. We offer a place to the rookies. But I want them to make a film without permission. Training of a successor has nothing to do with us. (laughs) If I say more honestly, we had to make Arrietty because we want to make Miya-san's film".
The interviewer Yoichi Shibuya also asked Suzuki questions on the drama behind the production of Tales from Earthsea.
Shibuya: I think it's love to Hayao Miyazaki not love to Goro-san that you had him make the film.
Suzuki: Indeed.
Shibuya: How do you let Hayao Miyazaki make a film and how do you bring a new talent. Who can survive in discord with Miyazaki... oh, it's his son!
Suzuki: (laughs) I surely thought about that a little.
Shibuya: So you had Goro-san make the film. I think it served to maintain a big lifeline to Ghibli. (Tales from Earthsea earned 7.5 billion yen)
Suzuki: The fact that it happened is so.
Shibuya: Only you can do it. Though the best script is the birth of a big talent to rival Hayao Miyazaki.
Suzuki: I think so.
Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.
--LLin 20:49, 8 January 2011 (UTC)
Ghibli's Five Year Plan
Toshio Suzuki revealed on his December 28 radio show that Studio Ghibli will create a Showa Trilogy.
Narration (at 28:45): Though it said "Do not broadcast", we leak this important information for Ghibli fans. Because today is the last episode of this year!
Suzuki: Ghibli returns to the old ways. Ghibli's Showa Sanbusaku (Showa Trilogy). We will do it next year [Ed: Kokuriko is set in Showa 38 (1963/1964)], and then the next film is set in a little older Japan (than Kokuriko). And the next is....
Fujimaki: Is it Miyazaki-san's?
Suzuki: I don't understand whether it goes well, but we (Suzuki and Miyazaki) are talking about it. What kind of times was the youth of the parents of the heroine Umi-cyan? I think it's interesting.
The content that Suzuki talked about is yet a final decision.
Hayao Miyazaki suggested the five-year plan in 2008 and it began in 2009. Suzuki stated that films by two young directors are made in the first three years and an epic film will be made in last two years (2012 and 2013). It is unknown whether it is one or two epic films.
Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.
--LLin 06:44, 5 January 2011 (UTC)