Hayao Miyazaki comes out of retirement for one last Studio Ghibli film

In some delightful news for Studio Ghibli fans, founder Hayao Miyazaki is all set to weave magic once again with his animated works. The prolific filmmaker has announced that he is coming out of retirement to work on a feature length animated movie.

Miyazaki made the revelation in a recent interview with The New York Times. Although the filmmaker kept a tight lip when it came to details about the project, he did reveal that the film will be based on the 1937 book How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino. Miyazaki also said that the upcoming movie would be of the fantasy genre and mounted on a ‘grand scale

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How Do You Live? follows the story of a 15 year old boy from Tokyo who has to go and live with his uncle after the death of his father. The book deals with themes of poverty as well as coming of age themes.

When asked a question about the reason for his return after almost eight years, the filmmaker replied that it was because he had ‘wanted to’

This does not mark the first time Miyazaki has returned to filmmaking after announcing his retirement. In the late 1990s, the filmmaker had decided to retire but had come back to direct Studio Ghibli’s 2002 film, Spirited Away.

The fantasy film went on to become one of the studio’s most popular and commercially successful works and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Other popular projects he did for the studio include My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, among others.

Miyazaki’s last project for the studios was 2013’s The Wind Rises.