Miyazaki's New Movie "Based On Irish Children's Literature"?

Just last week we wrote about how little was known Hayao Miyazaki's return to features. We reported that we had no idea what the film would be- other than the fact that we were pretty sure it wasn't a feature-length adaptation of Boro The Caterpillar.

Now, however, we've got our first clue to what the film might be. The Spanish Language Generacion Ghibli Blog (one of the most respected Studio Ghibli blogs around) has got their hands on a few precious morsels of information- and although this dates back to March, as far as we know we're the first English language site to pick up on them.

The new film, according to Genearacion Ghibli's sources will be "based on Irish Children's Literature", although it will be relocated to Japan. This would be pretty standard material for Ghibli, as the Studio has been inspired by European literature before. Arriety and When Marnie Was There are recent examples of their films which have adapted European stories, but relocated the action to Japan.

As there's no official confirmation we have to treat this as a rumour for now. Let the speculation begin- what Irish book could it be?

Generacion Ghibli is also reporting that Takeshi Honda will be animation director on the new project.  Honda is an animation veteran who worked as an animator on Up On Poppy Hill and Tales From Earthsea, as well as dozens of other classic anime movies and TV series such as Perfect Blue, Evangelion and Ghost In The Shell.

We will, of course, bring you more information as soon as we have it.

[source]