Indie director David Lowery talks getting to redo Pete’s Dragon his way.
What appealed to you about taking this on?
David Lowery:The appeal to me had nothing to do with the original film.
They wanted to have nothing to do with the original, for better or worse.
Thats what really drew me to it.
And it happened to share a title with another film.
I was worried that it wouldnt be.
I was worried that thered be pushback from the studio on certain things or just micromanagement.
I dont deal well with micromanagement, as very few people do.
Weve seen a lot of those.
We all know the movies that have suffered for the reason.
So it was a little trepidatious.
And I loved Disney movies when I was seven.
I was obsessed withThe Little Mermaid.
I loveFox and the Hound.Pinocchiowas the very first movie I ever saw.
So I didnt want to do anything that would step on or tarnish the Disney brand.
I wanted to support the Disney brand, but I also wanted to make my movie.
They also wanted my perspective on a Disney movie.
I wanted to make a classic Disney movie and I wanted to make that Disney movie mine.
The studio can be proud of it.
I read that you sort of based the dragon on your own pet?
Ive got two cats.
Well, at the time I had four.
Two of them were old, so theyre not with us anymore.
And no one raised an eyebrow at that.
They all thought that sounded great.
That was very important.
I really wanted the dragon to be furry because I relate to furry creatures immensely.
My happiest moments are at home cuddled up with my cats.
I just wanted to represent a 20-foot tall version of that relationship as best I could.
But every animal is in there.
Weve got obviously a lot of the dog.
Hopefully, anyone that has ever experienced a bond with another animal will see that relationship represented onscreen.
Did Elliott actually go through a lot of iterations, furry or not?
Was he kind of set in your mind early on?
He was pretty much set in my mind from the beginning.
He did not really change that much.
I drew this picture that was a really rough pencil sketch of his general size and shape and feel.
My brother is an illustrator, so he did a lot of the concept art for us.
Then we hired a bunch of other concept artists just to go exploring.
We got Brian Froud, who didLabyrinth.
We have a library of really cool designs, but none of them were right.
Theyd become chimeras or griffins very, very quickly.
So then I just gave that drawing to some designers and had them base the design off that.
Right away they kind of hit a homerun.
And then he was done.
It was reassuring in my heart to feel like my instincts were pretty spot on.
Weve been developing this other project which were hoping to make this year.
Ive only met him at that point like three or four times, maybe.
So I didnt really meet him until after I had a film there.
And I went in to meet him about this other project.
So we spent a while developing that.
At that point in the movie he was sort of crazy.
He was sort of a goofy comic relief character.
We were talking about casting, who would best be fit for that part.
Youve got your list of actors of a certain age.
You go through them and some of them feel right, some of them dont.
Ill be very upfront in saying the part at that point was not appropriate for Robert Redford.
So we just sent it to him and he read it and liked it.
But I think, initially, he felt that the project wasnt for him.
So we went off and wrote it with him in mind.
And you dont have to box them into something theyve done before.
But nonetheless, you just tailor it specifically for them.
I always make a run at do that once we start casting.
I think people started taking it seriously.
It wasnt just the goofy remake of the 1977Petes Dragon.
It was suddenly a movie starring Robert Redford.
And that was a feather in our cap that I will wear proudly.
I know how to work with him.
I know all sorts of little things I wouldnt have known before.
Petes Dragonis out in theaters this Friday (August 12).
