Formerly Retired Hayao Miyazaki Reveals He's Working On A New Feature Film

It’s hard to keep an artist away from their trade, and in an era when musicians and acts formerly lost to time routinely come back together, it’s not a surprise that one of the world’s most beloved filmmakers still has a hunger for the big screen. Two years ago, acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke“) announced he was retiring and the revered animation house Studio Ghibli which was built on his name, was shuttering its operations. However, it looks like we may get one more picture from the director.

READ MORE: 9-Minute Video Essay Details Hayao Miyazaki’s Decades-Long Journey To Bring ‘Princess Mononoke’ To Life

Recently on Japan’s NHK television, Miyazaki revealed that the CG short film he was working on for the Ghibli Musuem, “Kemushi no Boro” (“Boro the Caterpillar“), has now been expanded into a full length picture. The director has presented a proposal to make the full length movie, and while he has yet to receive an official greenlight, he has already started working on storyboards, and says that if everything fall into place, he could have the movie completed for 2019.

Right now, it all seems a question mark, and even Studio Ghibli producers featured in the same NHK piece apparently didn’t seem too optimistic. The short version of “Kemushi no Boro,” which will run twelve minutes long, is not expected to be completed until next year, and it will only screen at Ghibli Museum. The only details Miyazaki would share is that it’s about “a tiny, hairy caterpillar, so tiny that it may be easily squished between your fingers” so we’ll have to see how that story expands into a full length narrative. But let’s hope the legendary moviemaker gets his chance to make it, because right now, the world could use a little more Miyazaki magic. [Anime News Network]