Feb 16, 2018

Mamoru Hosoda's "Future" is pre-sold to children for distribution in the United States

Mamoru Hosoda's next feature film, Mirai, will be released in the United States through GKIDS.

GKIDS will launch the film this fall in both its original Japanese language and a new English dub. This means the American release is happening only a few months after the film's Japanese release, which is on July 20th.

Produced by Hosoda's own company, Studio Chizu (“map” in Japanese), Mirai is also written by Hosoda, the director behind films like The Boy and the Beast and Wolf Children. Funimation had won the North American rights to all of Hosoda's prior films, though the company worked with GKIDS on the theatrical release of Summer Wars.

Here's a look at a Japanese teaser for Mirai:

The film, which sounds in some ways like the thinking person's Boss Baby, follows a young boy who feels forgotten by his family after a little sister, Mirai, arrives. He runs away from home, and discovers a magical garden with a time-travelling gateway where he encounters his mother as a little girl, his great-grandfather as a young man, and has a series of adventures with his “older” sister from the future.

“GKIDS is both thrilled and honored to be releasing the newest film from the great Mamoru Hosoda, a true master and one of the most exciting, iconic, and humanist filmmakers working in animation,” said GKIDS CEO and founder Eric Beckman. “His previous films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and The Boy and the Beast rank among my favorite animated films of all time and everyone at GKIDS is so excited to be working together with Studio Chizu and Charades on this project!”

Charades, mentioned in the quote above, is the new-ish French sales agent that is handling the film's international sales. According to Variety, they've also presold Mirai to the following territories: Spain (A Contracorriente) U.K. (Anime Limited) Italy (Dynit) Canada (MK2 Mile End) Germany (AV Visionen) Latin America (KEM) Turkey (Filma) Benelux (Cineart) CIS (Exponenta) Turkey (Filma) Lebanon and the Gulf region (Selim Ramia) Australia/New Zealand (Madman)