Writer/director David Lowery made a major splash at the Sundance Film Festival this year with his debut film Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Armed with an all-star cast of true talent including Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, and Ben Foster, Lowery told the dark drama of an outlaw how races across Texas to finally be with his wife and the daughter who he was never able to meet. The film wound up taking home the cinematography award (albeit shared with Andrew Dosunmu's Mother of George), in addition to plenty of critical praise. But I would bet that none of those that have seen the film saw this piece of news coming.
Deadline is reporting that Lowery is now working with Disney to bring back the classic animated/live-action tale Pete's Dragon. Described as a "reinvention," the new project is being scripted by the filmmaker and writing partner Toby Halbrooks and apparently changes will be going all the way to the core of the original story.
A movie staple of most childhoods, the 1977 original told the tale of an orphan named Pete who teams with his friend, a cartoon dragon named Elliott, to escape his abusive adoptive parents. Fleeing to a town called Passamaquoddy, Maine, and taken in by a nice lighthouse keeper named Nora and her father Lampie, all things seem well for Pete and his friend until he learns that his guardians are on his tail and that the townspeople aren't too keen on having a dragon in the neighborhood.
Ain't Them Bodies Saints was picked up by IFC Films at Sundance and they will be releasing the movie on August 16th.
