More Miramax and Miyazaki

[mark schilling]

I thought the list might be interested in this article I wrote for the
Screen International site http://www.screendaily.com/

Mark Schilling

Walt Disney acquires North American rights to Miyazaki's Spirited Away

Tokyo: Walt Disney Co. has acquired North American rights to Hayao Miyazaki'
s smash animated hit Spirited Away, which has broken all box office records
in Japan. Disney also bought rights to the film for Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Singapore and France in previously concluded deals. Meanwhile, sales agent
Wild Bunch is handling other world rights to the film, excluding South
Korea, and has recently concluded distribution deals for the UK,
Switzerland, Italy and Russia.

Learning from Miramax's long-delayed and much-criticized North American
release of Miyazaki's previous hit, Princess Mononoke, Disney is moving
quickly to get Spirited Away into the theatres, possibly as early as July.
The studio has already engaged Pixar creative chief John Lasseter to serve
as creative consultant on the dubbed version of Spirited Away, though no
voice casting choices have yet been announced.

Still in release seven months after its opening in Japan last July, Spirited
Away is closing in on the 30 billion yen ($226 million) and 23 million
admissions mark. Shortly after the film won the Golden Bear award at the
Berlin Film Festival, Japanese distributor Toho announced that it would give
Spirited Away an "encore" release on 130 screens, starting March 9.

Disney has been distributing Studio Ghilbi films since a deal signed with
Ghibli corporate parent Tokuma in 1997. The only North American theatrical
release to emerge from that deal, however, was of Princess Mononoke, a 1997
Miyazaki animation that was the Japanese box office record-holder. It earned
$2.37 million after opening in October 1999 on 131 screens in 69 U.S. and
Canadian cities, a disappointing showing considering its $150 million take
in Japan.

Set in present-day Japan, Spirited Away is a fantasy about a ten-year-old
girl who finds herself in a mysterious world of goblins and gods. Though
filmed in 2D animation, it makes the most extensive use of digital
technology of any film in Studio Ghibli's seventeen-year history. Following
its July release in Japan, it opened Hong Kong in December and then in
Singapore and Taiwan. It is also to be shown in France in April.