Quentin Tarantino Was Originally Asked to Develop the PRINCESS MONONOKE English Dub

One of my favorite films to come out of Studio Ghibli was Princess Mononoke. I love that film and the story that it tells. When the Hayao Miyazaki-directed film was being dubbed for English for the U.S. release, the first person that Miramax went to for help was Quentin Tarantino.

That’s right, they wanted Tarantino to help develop the English dub for the film, which would have been pretty cool and interesting. Tarantino ultimately passed on the offer and recommended Neil Gaiman for the job, who he thought was much better suited for the material, and he was right!

Gaiman confirmed all of this when he was asked about it on Twitter by a fan.

Yes.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 12, 2019

It’s kinda crazy that Tarantino was originally wanted for the job to tackle this project. By the time Princess Mononoke was headed to the U.S. the filmmaker had made Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown for Miramax. With the successful working relationship that the production company had with him, it makes sense that they’d approach him first.

In the end, handing the project off to Gaiman was ultimately the right move. The English dub of the film turned out great! But I still can’t help but think how Tarantino would have handled it. How do you think it would have gone under his direction?