Production I.G. annouces new Mamoru Oshii animated film, 'The Sky Crawlers'

Animation super-house Production I.G. announced today the new project by animation director Mamoru Oshii, who brought us such animation staples as the Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell movies. Oshii will be adapting the five-volume novel series The Sky Crawlers from author Hiroshi Mori.

"The Sky Crawlers" will center on Japanese teens stuck in perpetual adolescence and trained since birth to fight in wars that are really a form of amusement. Settings will include Ireland and Poland -- the latter also the locale for Oshii's live-action pic "Avalon." Oshii plans to use 3-D for air combat and other scenes, a departure for the hitherto 2-D helmer. Oshii said Wednesday the pic is "something I want to communicate to young people, while denying that it will be messagey in the usual ways." Also, instead of the deep-think philosophizing about the future of humanity fans have become used to from such Oshii toons as "Ghost in the Shell" and "Innocence," Oshii said he wants the new pic to be a love story, adding, "I think it will be a turning point for me." Variety

Mori described this novel series as "the most difficult of all of my works to put on screen," so he expressed relief upon hearing who was involved. "I heard that the director would be Oshii-san, and I was put at ease right there and then. After all, it's Director Oshii!"AnimeNewsNetwork

Production I.G. announcement
Official SkyCrawlers site with Flash Embedded Trailer