Mamoru Hosoda directing new animated fantasy film "Bakemono no Ko"

By kevin on December 11, 2014 at 7:09am EST

On Thursday, a press conference was held at Toho’s headquarters in Yurakucho, Tokyo to announce a new animated film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars) titled Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast). The project marks Hosoda’s first animated feature film since 2012’s Wolf Children.

Based on an original screenplay, the film revolves around a connection between the human world in Shibuya and the bakemono (monster) world “Jutengai”. When a young boy becomes lost in Jutengai, he meets a bear-like bakemono named Kumatetsu and becomes his protégé under a new moniker, Kyuta.

While Wolf Children was themed around the love between a mother and her children, the new film is said to be themed around “father and son”. The setting of Shibuya also deviates from Hosoda’s previous use of rural locations, such as Nagano and Toyama Prefecture.

Hosoda collaborated on his past screenplays with award-winning screenwriter Satoko Okudera, but this time he decided to give it a shot on his own.

Development of Bakemono no Ko began in September 2012, shortly after the release of Wolf Children. The plot took about a year and a month to hash out and the script itself was written over the span of 4 months from October 2013. Character design began around the same time, from December 2013 and storyboard development took about 8 months from March 2014. Drawing will be completed by the end of May 2014, just a few months before the film’s domestic release.

Takaaki Yamashita and Tatsuzou Nishida, longtime supporters of Hosoda’s work, are serving as animation directors on the project while Takashi Omori, Yohei Takamatsu, and Yoichi Nishikawa will handle the art direction. Takagi Masakatsu, who previously provided the music for the Studio Ghibli documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness will handle the soundtrack.

French film company Gaumont has already signed on to release the film theatrically and will handle international distribution outside of Asia. Interest is expected to be high due to the critical success of Wolf Children.

The film’s voice cast has not yet been selected.

“Bakemono no Ko” will be released in Japan on July 11, 2015.

Source: Eiga.com