Okay, if Lynne Ramsay exiting “Jane Got A Gun” wasn’t already the biggest surprise news of the day, this probably would be. David Lowery, who seemed to be everywhere at Sundance in January, as the writer of”Pit Stop,” editor on Shane Carruth‘s “Upsteam Color,” while unveiling his own massively well-received effort “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” has plotted his next movie: dude is going to Disney World.
Deadline reports that Lowery along with his writing partner Toby Halbrooks have been hired by Disney to pen a new take on the studio’s 1977 film, “Pete’s Dragon.” “I imagine a lot folks are about to be very confused…” Lowery tweeted this evening, and perhaps that may be the case, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Mouse House has gone indie. Remember, Disney also hired “Safety Not Guaranteed” (and now “Jurassic Park IV“) helmer Colin Trevorrow to redo “Flight Of The Navigator” for them, so it’s not totally unexpected.
Anyway, Lowery will be only be writing at this point, with Disney wanting to drop the music from the animated/live action movie, about a boy and his invisible, magical dragon who flees from his abusive parents. Of course, ‘Saints’ is also about pursuit, with Casey Affleck‘s outlaw on the run from the authorities to see his love Rooney Mara, and so we can only imagine a very ballsy Disney exec saw that and said, “What if we applied that to one our movies?” And frankly, it is kinda inspired.
So Lowery is moving on up, and putting ‘Saints’ to bed. “Today we locked Reels 1 and 2 forever. And by forever I hope I don’t mean ‘forever'” he tweeted earlier. And not too soon — “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” arrives on August 16th.