News
New Princess Mononoke details printed
posted on
Houichi Shinbun, a Japanese "Sports" newspaper (equivilent to a tabloid), is currently running a series of articles on the English production of Princess Mononoke by Miramax.
Editor's note: some details are softened here, due to the lack of trustworthiness from the sources involved.
Among the stories are rumors that the release will be spread across up to fifteen countries, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and others. At a press conference at the end of last month, Mr. Tokuma (C.E.O., Tokuma Shoten) suggested that the US release may see as many as 1,000 theaters in 100 cities.
The English version of Princess Mononoke, like Kiki's Delivery Service, was directed by Jack Fletcher, and the character of Toki is said to be played by Jada Pinckett (Scream 2, The Nutty Professor). It is rumored that Harvey Weinstein, CEO of Miramax, was initially dissatisfied with the dub job, and wanted Minnie Driver (Eboshi) to have an English accent. It is unclear if this situation was rectified.
Weinstein's repeated requests to cut the film were (and are being) rejected by Ghibli, who earlier extracted a promise from him not to cut the film or the music. Producer Mr. Suzuki gave him a fake Japanese sword to drive home the point. It's suggested that Mr. Weinstein is known for preferring to cut things.
The combined cost of the English version is rumored to be around $3 million, $200,000 of which went to writer Neil Gaiman.
Anime News Network is in the process of contacting Miramax, whom we are hoping will confirm or deny some of these.
