About a month after announcing his comeback to direction with an upcoming film titled Bucking Fastard, starring real-life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, Werner Herzog is now set to direct his first animation film. Herzog is also turning a narrator for the film, an adaptation of his own novel 'The Twilight World', which follows an intelligence officer in Japan who, under the impression that the Second World War is still going on, keeps fighting an imaginary war in the Philippines. Herzog adapted his book alongside Luca Vitale and Michael Arias, and it blends elements of war drama, dreams, and history.

Sun Creature Studio, known for the Academy Award-nominated film Flee, is attached to co-produce the film along with Psyop. Herzog stated that Psyop encouraged him to consider adapting the story into an animation film thanks to the medium's potential to tell it "in a truly compelling and imaginative way."

Producers Andrew Linsk and Psyop's Amanda Miller described collaborating with Herzog as "a masterclass in nuanced storytelling." Linsk revealed that Herzog's story explores "the characters' perception of the passage of time" in a way that lends itself well to animation.

The Twilight World is set to go on floors early next year.