The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Del Monico Books announced that they are co-publishing an illustrated catalog documenting Hayao Miyazaki's storied career, which will feature commentary from other film industry luminaries, as well as production artwork that has never been seen outside of Studio Ghibli's archives.
As reported by Anime News Network, the 288-page, full color catalog will feature a foreward by Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki. The book will go in-depth on Miyazaki's oeuvre and will also feature commentary from other animation industry veterans and experts, including Pixar COO Pete Docter, museum curator Jessica Niebel and film critic Daniel Kothenschulte. The catalog will be released on Sept. 7 through the Academy Museum store, and will be distributed worldwide by D.A.P. Artbook. The Miyazaki book is just the first of three catalogs that the Museum is planning to publish, with the other two books being dedicated to Do The Right Thing director Spike Lee and Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who won Academy Awards for All About My Mother and Talk to Her.
The release of the catalog will precede the oft-delayed opening of the museum on Sept. 30. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures celebrates the almost century-long history of the Oscars, and one of its first exhibits will be dedicated to exploring the works of Miyazaki, who won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003 for Spirited Away. The exhibit will feature more than 200 concept sketches, storyboards, animation cels, and other production materials from Miyazaki's career that have never been seen outside of Studio Ghibli. Additionally, the Museum will screen all of the acclaimed anime director's films throughout the months of October and November.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences first announced plans for the Los Angeles museum in 2012. The museum was originally planned to open in 2017 but has been met with almost five years of delays. The Miyazaki exhibit was originally announced in 2018. An opening gala for the museum is currently scheduled for Sept. 5.
Miyazaki, meanwhile, is working on his next animated feature, How Do You Live?. The movie is based on a 1937 novel by Yoshino Genzaburo and is a personal favorite of the director. The novel will be localized and released in English for the first time this fall with a foreward by Sandman author Neil Gaiman. How Do You Live? began production in 2016 and Studio Ghibli estimates that it will be another three years before the film is complete.
Source: Anime News Network