Hayao Miyazaki is offiically coming out of retirement for one more anime feature film. The news comes via his longtime film producer, Toshio Suzuki, who was recently doing press interviews to promote
The Red Turtle's Oscar Nomination.
We reported last November that Miyazaki was only partially retired as the 76-year-old animation director was trying to learn CG animation, to turn a Ghibli Museum short into a full-length feature film. And even earlier, Miyazaki was
on record as early as November 2013 (right after the release of his last animated feature,
The Wind Rises), stating that he was working on a manga set during Japan's Sengoku period or "Warring States Period".
It seems Miyazaki's dogged persistence to keep storyboarding on the cg project before it actually had any funding has finally paid off as Suzuki confirmed that he's producing it. Of course, with the current focus on
The Red Turtle, no further details on the project were announced. Miyazaki previously stated that he hopes to release the film in 2020, right before the Olympics kick off in Japan.