Studio Ghibli co-founder, Toshio Suzuki, recently attended the Niconico Choukaigi event, where he revealed several details about Hayao Miyazaki’s return to making feature films. During the event, Suzuki firmly stated that Miyazaki’s planned 2019 release for his return film is “simply impossible.”

Suzuki said that Miyazaki has started drawing storyboards for his proposed film since July. However, the producer stated that he has only done about 20 of them. According to Suzuki, this simply ain’t good enough to make that proposed 2019 timeline.

Reporters also asked him about what the film’s title is. Suzuki just answered tham “I can’t tell you”. And then, one reporter asked him if he thinks Miyazaki could finish the movie while still alive. To this, the Ghibli co-founder replied “hmmmmmmm… I don’t know”.

This scramble for Miyazaki’s return from retirement all started with the documentary, “The Man Who Is Not Done: Hayao Miyazaki”, which aired via NHK last November 2016. During the program, Miyazaki revealed he really wanted to do a feature film, and not just an animated short like Boro the Caterpillar. And by August, he then presented a project proposal for a feature-length film. Miyazaki then revealed in the special that he planned to release that film by 2019, before the 2020 Olympics.

But as Suzuki stated, the schedule is just impossible at the moment. And it really does seem that Miyazaki’s planned return film is still in production limbo.

Suzuki did have some good news regarding Boro the Caterpillar though. He said that the Miyazaki-directed animated short will debut at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo in July.

Source: Huffington Post Japan