Fresh off the successful Sundance debut of his heady, introspective drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, filmmaker David Lowery is taking a rather unexpected gig for his next project.  Deadline reports that Lowery has been tapped to write the script for Disney’s new iteration of Pete’s Dragon alongside his writing partner Toby Halbrooks.  The scribe will be reinventing the core story of Disney's 1977 live-action/animated musical film that centered on a young orphan named Pete who moves into a small fishing community with his sometimes-invisible dragon.  At this time, it appears that Lowery will only be writing the film and won't be directing.

This new version of Pete's Dragon will not be a musical and, if Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is any indication, could be quite dramatic.  Lowery previously worked as an editor before recently making the jump to director, and I’m interested to see what his take on Pete’s Dragon looks like.  This is only the latest in a number of “reimaginings” that Disney is currently developing, including a new iteration of Cinderella, the villain pic Maleficent, and the recently announced live-action Beauty and the Beast. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for Disney’s original Pete’s Dragon movie. 

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