'When Marnie Was There' Director Reveals 'Mary And The Witch's Flower' Film

Reports of the legendary Studio Ghibli's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Since the completion of their most recent feature When Marnie Was There, they have been working on a number of shorts and commercials and co-produced The Red Turtle- and that was all before Hayao Miyazaki suggested he might come out of retirement and make another feature.

However. while things have been quiet on the feature front, much of the staff have moved onto pastures new, and that includes director of Marnie and Arriety,  Hiromasa Yonebayashi. It's now been announced that Yonebayashi has been working on a new film that will be released in Japan as soon as Summer 2017-and a number of other ex-Ghibli staff are along for the ride. The surprise announcement is even accompanied by the first trailer.


Mary And The Witch's Flower is the first feature from Studio Ponoc, a studio founded by ex-Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura in 2015. The film is based on an English language novel by Mary Stewart called The Little Broomstick. Yonebayashi is co-writing with Riko Sakaguchi, and Nishamura will produce.

Based on the look of the gorgeous teaser trailer, it will very much appeal to fans of Ghibli. So closely does it resemble the studio's output in fact that many places are (wrongly) describing it as a new Ghibli film. The film's website is available here (Japanese language).





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