Kiki’s Delivery Service to be adapted to live-action series by BBC, Studio Ghibli not involved

Kiki’s next adaptation will draw from her original, pre-anime roots, but will audiences give it a chance? Earlier this year, Kiki’s Delivery Service had its first-ever IMAX screenings in North America, and this month the large-scale remaster of the Studio Ghibli anime classic will be arriving in Japanese theaters too. That’s not the only reunion in the works for fans of the young witch, though, as a live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service adaptation has been announced.

This isn’t going to be a one-shot theatrical feature, either. Instead, the live-action Kiki’s is going to be a TV/streaming series, and it’s going to be produced in partnership with the U.K.’

s BBC. In recent years, we’ve seen quite a few Studio Ghibli anime films make the leap into one form or another of live-action. My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away became stage plays and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was turned into a kabuki performance, with Princess Mononoke soon to follow suit.

And while it was a sequel instead of a direct adaptation, there was a live-action movie follow-up to Whisper of the Heart. However, BBC Studios Kids and Family won’t be coordinating with Studio Ghibli for the project, nor will they be working with Ghibli’s parent company Nippon Television Holdings. Instead, the live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service series is being made in partnership with Kadokawa, the Japanese publisher of the original Kiki’s Delivery Service novel from author and creator Eiko Kadano.

Also part of the team is U.K.-based production company Wheel in Motion, and scriptwriting is being handled by Irena Brignull, whose most prominent credits include 2015’s The Little Prince and 2014’s The Boxtrolls.

The series is planned for 10 30-minute episodes. Casting and a release window have yet to be announced. After decades of live-action productions of Japanese franchises made in foreign countries being a recipe for disaster, there have been a number of high-profile crowd-pleasers in recent years, including the Supe