diff --git a/scrapy/templates/project/module/items.py.tmpl b/scrapy/templates/project/module/items.py.tmpl
index b6b4d8547..2c746138f 100644
--- a/scrapy/templates/project/module/items.py.tmpl
+++ b/scrapy/templates/project/module/items.py.tmpl
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 # Define here the models for your scraped items
 #
 # See documentation in:
diff --git a/scrapy/templates/project/module/pipelines.py.tmpl b/scrapy/templates/project/module/pipelines.py.tmpl
index 69ed892bb..4e9b32e9e 100644
--- a/scrapy/templates/project/module/pipelines.py.tmpl
+++ b/scrapy/templates/project/module/pipelines.py.tmpl
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 # Define your item pipelines here
 #
 # Don't forget to add your pipeline to the ITEM_PIPELINES setting
diff --git a/scrapy/templates/project/module/settings.py.tmpl b/scrapy/templates/project/module/settings.py.tmpl
index b90be8bc8..e9f1ba0e4 100644
--- a/scrapy/templates/project/module/settings.py.tmpl
+++ b/scrapy/templates/project/module/settings.py.tmpl
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 # Scrapy settings for $project_name project
 #
 # For simplicity, this file contains only the most important settings by