Overseas Studio Ghibli fan spent over half a decade working on live-action tribute project to Hayao Miyazaki anime.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is an all-time anime classic. Though its release predates the official founding of Studio Ghibli, Nausicaa is widely considered the first Ghibli film, with Hayao Miyazaki heading a team of artists who would bring that signature style with them when they formed the studio the next year.

Nausicaa debuted in Japanese theaters in 1984, and in the years since multiple Hollywood Studios have come knocking on Ghibli’s doors looking to secure the rights for a live-action adaptation. They’ve all been turned down, but there is a live-action Nausicaa on the horizon, in the form of a now-completed fan film.

Titled Wind Princess, it’s an independent project from Brazilian director Chris Tex. The 34-year-old Tex has spent a substantial portion of his life working on Wind Princess, starting all the way back in 2016 and working with a team of 11 creatives to bring his vision of a live-action version of the Miyazaki anime to life.

Wind Princess first caught our attention with a teaser trailer a few years ago. At that time, its status was simply “coming soon,” but the myriad financial, logistic, and scheduling challenges present in independent/fan filmmaking often mean that “soon” never comes. Tex and his team has persevered, though, and late last month the 16-minuute-long completed version of Wind Princess had its first screening in a free event at the São Paulo Cultural Center.

In his comments, Tex repeatedly asserts that Wind Princess is intended as a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, and that he will not be profiting from the film. That means there’s not going to be a paid theatrical, screening, or home video release for Wind Princess. Instead, Tex says that he will be posting the entire film to his YouTube channel, which can be found here, later this month, with a tentative date of October 20.

Tex says he has been an anime fan since childhood, and a Ghibli fan since seeing Spirited Away. During a trip to Japan three years ago, he asked an acquaintance to attempt to set up a meeting with the Studio Ghibli staff, but was unable to, and Wind Princess was produced without any assistance or acknowledgement from the anime studio. With his film now complete, though, Tex says he hopes that Miyazaki himself will see it, and that if he were to earn Ghibli’s official blessing, he’d like to try his hand at making a feature-length live-action Nausicaa.

Source: Brasil Nippou via Hachima Kiko
Top image: YouTube/Chris Tex
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