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GKids to Release Ghibli's From Up On Poppy Hill Film in N. America
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The entertainment trade magazine Variety reported on Tuesday that GKIDS has acquired the North American rights to Goro Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's From Up On Poppy Hill film. GKIDS confirmed the news at France's Annecy film festival.
Variety reported that GKIDS will release the film next March, and it plans to qualify the film for 2013's Academy Awards before then. Variety does not specify if GKIDS' rights include both theatrical and home video rights, although a film will have to play in a Los Angeles County theater for at least one week to qualify for Academy Award consideration.
Studio Ghibli is producing an English-language version of the film, and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are co-executive producing the English version.
After his directorial debut on Tales from Earthsea, Miyazaki (the son of studio founder Hayao Miyazaki) adapted the shōjo manga Kokuriko-Zaka Kara by Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsurō Sayama. From Up On Poppy Hill "follows a group of Yokohama teens in their quest against a wrecking ball that threatens to destroy their school's clubhouse in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics." Hayao Miyazaki scripted the film. The film originally premiered in theaters in Japan in July 2011.
GKIDS signed a deal with Studio Ghibli last to distribute 13 of the studio's anime films from 1984 to 2002 — including Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Spirited Away — in North America. However, Disney will retain the home video rights to the same films, while GKIDS will hold the theatrical and non-theatrical distribution rights.
Update: More background information added.
Image © 2011 Chizuru Takahashi, Tetsurō Sayama, GNDHDDT
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