It would appear that Michael C. Hall is allergic to dragons. Actually, there isn’t a given reason why he’s decided to leave the new Pete’s Dragon film, but it means good news for Karl Urban fans as the Star Trek actor has stepped in to replace him.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery is busy putting the new version of the story together, working from a script he co-wrote with Toby Halbrooks. It’s Disney’s latest attempt to conjure a fresh take on one of its catalogue titles, this time the live-action/animation-blend 1977 film which saw a young lad befriend a magical dragon.
The new movie will apparently deviate from the original, not by having the dragon turn evil and go all Smaug on the local town, but by stripping out the musical element and injecting an environmental message into the story.
Robert Redford, Bryce Dallas Howard (who is surely nervous about working with giant reptiles after Jurassic World) and Wes Bentley are on the roster alongside Oakes Fegley, who plays Pete. The film is scheduled to arrive in the US on August 12 next year, but there’s no set UK date yet.