Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Sells for U.Okay.

Elysian Movie Group, Nameless Content material and Bleecker Avenue have collectively acquired the U.Okay. rights to The Boy and the Heron, the brand new animated function from legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki.

Elysian Movie Group will launch the movie in U.Okay. cinemas later this yr.

Miyazaki’s first function in a decade — since The Wind Rises in 2013 — The Boy and the Heron is already a success in Japan, the place its four-day opening field workplace topped that of the director’s 2001 Oscar-winning masterpiece Spirited Away. The Boy and the Heron had its worldwide premiere on the Toronto Movie Competition on Sept. 7. The U.Okay. premiere will probably be on the London Movie Competition subsequent month, the place The Boy and the Heron will display screen as a part of a particular presentation.

The U.Okay. deal was negotiated by Nick Shumaker of Nameless Content material with Danny Perkins of Elysian Movie Group and Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy on behalf of Bleecker Avenue, and Vincent Maraval and Eva Diederix of gross sales group Goodfellas on behalf of the filmmakers.

The deal for The Boy and the Heron marks the primary time Bleecker Avenue has instantly invested in a movie for U.Okay. distribution. It’s additionally the corporate’s first-ever acquisition of an animated function. However The Boy and the Heron seems to be a protected guess. The hand-drawn animated movie, which Miyazaki wrote and directed, wowed audiences and critics in Toronto, with The Hollywood Reporter calling the movie “a late present from a grasp” and a “becoming swan tune” for the 82-year-old anime pioneer.

“Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are second-to-none as artists and innovators, and we couldn’t be extra proud to deliver this stunning, emotional movie to audiences throughout the U.Okay.,” Elysian, Nameless Content material and Bleecker Avenue mentioned in a joint assertion.

That is Bleecker Avenue’s second main purchase at TIFF, having picked up U.S. rights to British comedy Fackham Corridor in a pre-sale deal final week with The Veterans. Bleecker’s upcoming slate consists of the Meg Ryan-directed What Occurs Later, a rom-com starring Ryan and David Duchovny, which they’ll bow Nov. 3; Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Waitress: The Musical, which matches out on Dec. 7 with Fathom Occasions; Andrew Cumming’s Stone Age-set thriller The Origin, which can have its North American premiere at Implausible Fest; and Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s house station-set thriller I.S.S., which premiered on the Tribeca movie competition.