Chihiro and co. are hitting the stage!
In what might be the greatest news since Netflix announced that all the Studio Ghibli films would be made available on their platform, Spirited Away is receiving the theatrical treatment and is due to hit stages around the world in 2022. [Featured Image: @ghibliuk, Instagram].
Sen aka Chihiro, her pig parents, No-Face and all the gang will first hit the stage at the world premiere in Tokyo in February in 2022 if all goes to plan. Then, the stage play will tour Japan and possibly hit other parts of Asia and Europe. This is when we quite smartly point out that Australia is an integral part of the Asia-Pacific region—Australasia if you will.
Studio Ghibli’s 2001 classic is being brought to life by Les Misérables director John Caird.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, John Caird said: “I feel so excited and privileged to be working on the first-ever stage adaptation of Sen to Chihiro.
“I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest ever proponent of the anime form.”
He went on to add: “I share a belief in all the most dominant themes of Miyazaki’s work, themes that are at the core of the Sen to Chihiro world — care for the environment, reverence for nature, a belief in the force of the good spirits within us and the empowerment of young women and men to change the world for the better,”
“I am looking forward with great pleasure to deepening my partnership with my dear friends at Toho through a new relationship with Studio Ghibli and Suzuki Toshio, their most generous and inventive lead producer.”
Caird has already cast Actresses Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraish to play Chihiro in the tale that follows the 10-year-old’s quest to get her parents home safely from a world inhabited by ghosts and spirits.
Studio Ghibli has given the play its full support.