The voice cast for the new English language version of The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli’s latest film and the final animated feature film directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, has been announced.
Led by director Gary Rydstrom, executive producer Frank Marshall, and screenwriter Mike Jones, the English language version of the film stars:
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiro Horikoshi
- Emily Blunt as Nahoko Satomi, Jiro’s love interest
- John Krasinski as Honio, Jiro’s college friend
- Martin Short as Kurokawa, Jiro’s boss
- Stanley Tucci as Caproni, Italian airplane creator
- Mandy Patinkin as Hattori, senior designer at Mitsubishi
- Werner Herzog as Castorp, a mysterious visitor to Japan
- William H. Macy at Satomi, Nahoko’s father
- Mae Whitman as Kayo Horikoshi, Jiro’s younder sister
- Jennifer Grey as Mrs. Kurokawa
- Elijah Wood as Sone, engineering colleague of Jiro
- Darren Criss as Katayama, engineering colleague of Jiro
From the press release:
In ‘The Wind Rises,’ Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted and unable to be a pilot, he becomes one of the world’s most accomplished airplane designers, experiencing key historical events in an epic tale of love, perseverance and the challenges of living and making choices in a turbulent world.
The film was released in Japan to great critical acclaim and box office success in the summer of 2013. It opened for its Academy Award qualification engagements in New York and Los Angeles in November 2013 (the Academy Award engagements showed the original film in Japanese with English subtitles). It has already been nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The Wind Rises opens in select North American theaters on February 21, 2014, and will expand wide on February 28, 2014. The film is being distributed in North America under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label. Follow The Wind Rises on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Animation Fascination 