News

Castle in the Sky Rescored

The Jo Hisaishi web site (in Japanese) presented the news last week that Hisaishi will be traveling to Seattle in the beginning of May to record the new musical score to "Castle in the Sky," which is now slated for a fall release. The locale is for the choice of Orchestra, which is thought to have to do with politics within the industry (i.e. avoiding Los Angeles' unionized orchestras).

Some fans were not pleased with this choice, as Seattle-recorded soundtracks have a reputation for being below-par (despite their high-quality live performances). While some fans would have prefered that Disney go to London's Symphony Orchestra to avoid the unions, the limited funds allocated to a direct-to-video release would probably preclude this from happening. (Previous Seattle-recorded soundtracks include "The Associate" and "Die Hard 3".)

Meanwhile, Princess Mononoke information has been released to theaters, which tentatively lists the film as a "limited release", which is quite common for initial Miramax releases. (The film is expected to see a wider release if it does well.) However, this information is unconfirmed.

Contrary to an earlier ANN report, the film is not qualified for Academy Award nomination, as it was previously a candidate for a Foreign Film nomination (and didn't get one). Films can not be submitted for nomination more than once.

Also in the news, The Asahi Shinbun reported to day that the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will issue a commemorative Princess Mononoke stamp set, which will be on sale from August 1999 to December 2000, as part of their Symbols of the 20th Century in Japan series.

ANN thanks Isaac Alexander and Derek Janssen for contributing to this report.