In a recent press conference, Ghibli movie director Hayao Miyazaki (Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa, Totoro...) announced that he is preparing a new movie. Mononoke Hime, released in 1997, was supposed to be his last movie, yet Miyazaki has changed his mind. His involvment in the movie will supposedly not be as important as in the previous movies, though.

The tentative title is Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Sen and Chihiro's mysterious disappearances). It is the story of a 10-year old girl, Chihiro, whose parents have been tuned into pigs. She travels to the land of the Spirits to find a way to turn them back to humans.

Once again, pigs are a major element of the movie ; we all know that Miyazaki likes pigs (he portraits himself with a pig head, and named his premises "Butaya" -- the pig's room). The story takes place in modern Japan ; the movie is supposedly a "fantasy-adventure movie". Hayao Miyazaki is the author and movie director, Masahi Andou is the director of animation, and the movie is produced, as usual, by Toshio Suzuki.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is scheduled for a Summer 2001 release in Japan ; only one Miyazaki sketch is available now. You can check the Studio Ghibli schedule to see the staff's comments about how much the movie is made. A recent update (Jan. 21th) indicated that 20 minutes of the movie have been story-boarded.

Also, Miyazaki is currently working on a short movie : Mei to Konekobasu (Mei and the Kitten Bus). This short movie is being made especially for the Ghibli Museum opening in 2001, and will most likely not be shown somewhere else than there. Early production sketches show a Mei that has grown up since Totoro, and a bunch of various-sized Neko-bus. The film should be about 10 minutes long.

Click here to see the first production sketches of both movies.