Film will open in New York, L.A. starting on May 22

The TIFF Kids International Film Festival in Toronto will screen Studio Ghibli's When Marnie Was There on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday April 19 before it opens in U.S. theaters on May 22. The film will play in Japanese with English subtitles.

GKids 'initial release will be limited to New York and Los Angeles, but it will expand the screening in the following weeks. GKids also announced that Kiernan Shipka, Grey Griffin, Ava Acres, Raini Roodriguez, Hailee Steinfeld, John C. Reilly, Vanessa Williams, Geena Davis, Kathy Bates, Ellen Burstyn, and Catherine O'Hara will star in the English dub.

GKids describes the story:

When shy, artistic Anna moves to the seaside to live with her aunt and uncle, she stumbles upon an old mansion surrounded by marshes, and the mysterious young girl, Marnie, who lives there. The two girls instantly form a unique connection and friendship that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. As the days go by, a nearly magnetic pull draws Anna back to the Marsh House again and again, and she begins to piece together the truth surrounding her strange new friend.

Geoffrey Wexler (English dub producer on From Up On Poppy Hill) revealed in August that he is the English dub and subtitle producer for the film.

GKids handles North American theatrical and home video distribution for many other Studio Ghibli films, most recently The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

When Marnie Was There adapts Joan G. Robinson's classic English children's novel of the same name. In his second film, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010's The Secret World of Arrietty) has shifted the setting from the novel's Great Britain to a Japanese village on the shores of Hokkaido. Yonebayashi wrote the screenplay with Keiko Niwa (Secret World of Arrietty) and Masashi Ando (A Letter to Momo, Spirited Away and Paprika). Ando also handled the character designs and animation direction. Takatsugu Muramatsu composed the film's soundtrack.

The film first premiered in North America at The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) in February. The Kids International Film Festival will run from April 7-19.

[Via News 1130]