The Anime News Service is reporting on news released in Japan concerning the U.S. theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle.  The film will open on June 10th in LA, New York and San Francisco and will expand to 60 cities on June 17th.  Eventually Howl's Moving Castle should be in nearly 800 theaters, far from a wide release, but comparable to the post-Oscar release of Spirited Away, which earned about $10 million dollars at the box office here in the States.

 

Disney has lined up a topflight vocal cast for the English language dub including Christian (Batman) Bale as Howl, Lauren Bacall as the Witch of the Waste, Billy Crystal as Calcifer, Blythe Danner as Madam Salliman and Jean Simmons as Sophie Hatter (old).  Pete Docter, co-director of Monsters Inc., will supervise the dubbing.