A feature-length animated Godzilla movie is in development at Toho, the Japanese creator and home of the King of the Monsters , and will be released sometime next year.

According to Variety , the screenplay for the film, simply titled Godzilla, is being written by Psycho-Pass: The Movie writer Gen Urobuchi and will tell an original story.Polygon Pictures is producing the animated feature, and Detective Conan series director Kobun Shizuno is co-directing the film alongside Hiroyuki Seshita, who helmed the popular Netflix anime series Knights of Sidonia. "We’re aiming to make a big-scale animation entertainment that people who love Godzilla and people who know nothing about him can both enjoy," Shizuno said of the project in a statement.While this new Godzilla film will mark the first animated feature in the franchise's history, it's not the first time the series has been adapted for anime, with Toho having previously worked on a spin-off animated toy show in the late '90s called Godzilla Island (among many other TV and OVA incarnations).For more on the long-running franchise, check out IGN's review of the 2014 Godzilla film , which was directed by Gareth Edwards.

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his video content on YouTube