Academy Award-winning director, producer, and actor Ron Howard ( Happy Days, American Graffiti ) confirmed via his Twitter account on Wednesday that he will be lending his voice to the English dub of Goro Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's From Up on Poppy Hill film. Howard and co-executive producer Frank Marshall have also posted some pictures of Howard at the recording studio on Wednesday.

GKids will release the film in North American theaters next March, after holding a run in Los Angeles County for Academy Award qualification in the "November time frame." It also plans to release it on Blu-ray Disc and DVD. Studio Ghibli is producing the English-language version of the film, and Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are co-executive producing the English version. Academy Award-winning sound designer and director Gary Rydstrom ( Titanic, Jurassic Park ) is directing the English dub for the film.

After his directorial debut on Tales from Earthsea, Miyazaki (the son of studio founder Hayao Miyazaki) adapted the shōjo manga Kokuriko-zaka Kara by Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsurō Sayama. From Up on Poppy Hill "follows a group of Yokohama teens in their quest against a wrecking ball that threatens to destroy their school's clubhouse in preparation for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics." Hayao Miyazaki scripted the film. The film originally premiered in theaters in Japan in July 2011.

Update: Grammar error in first paragraph corrected. Thanks, Spastic Minnow.

[Via Studio Ghibli International]