One of my favorite Sundance films of the last few years was Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, a sublime drama starring Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster, which marked the break out for director David Lowery. When his follow-up was announced a few years ago, it caught us all by surprise. Yes, he jumped to a reboot of Disney’s 1977 Pete’s Dragon, tasked with reinventing “the core story,” but this time without the musical numbers of the original animated/live-action hybrid family film.
If you’ve never seen the Disney original, it follows a orphan kid who brings his magical dragon to a new town and hijinks ensue. With a cast featuring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Karl Urban, Wes Bentley, the first trailer has arrived, which acts more like a teaser, setting up our main characters and the tone. This is one of the most promising, and curious, studio features of the year, and we greatly look forward to what Lowery has in store. Check out the trailer and poster below.
A reimagining of Disney’s cherished family film, “Pete’s Dragon” is the adventure of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliott, who just so happens to be a dragon. “Pete’s Dragon” stars Bryce Dallas Howard (“Jurassic World”), Oakes Fegley (“This is Where I Leave You”), Wes Bentley (“The Hunger Games”), Karl Urban (“Star Trek”), Oona Laurence (“Southpaw”) and Oscar® winner Robert Redford (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”). The film, which is directed by David Lowery (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”), is written by Lowery & Toby Halbrooks based on a story by Seton I. Miller and S.S. Field and produced by Jim Whitaker, p.g.a. (“The Finest Hours,” “Friday Night Lights”), with Barrie M. Osborne (“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Great Gatsby”) serving as executive producer.
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Pete’s Dragon opens on August 12th.