Hot Takes.

Dallas Director David Lowery Is Blogging Daily From The Set Of His Pete's Dragon Remake.

Though we're fast approaching the two-year mark from when we first found out that Dallas filmmaker David Lowery would be helming Disney's Pete's Dragon remake, it'll still be quite a while before we see what spin the Ain't Them Bodies Saints director puts on that 1977 classic.

As it currently stands, Lowery's take on Pete's Dragon is scheduled to open on August 12, 2016 — just a week shy of the three-year anniversary of ATBS's own theatrical release. By then, the director wrote on his blog, he'll have also “wrapped production on two of those other movies I wrote — a period crime movie starring a living legend and a sci-fi film from the producer of Under The Skin.”

In the meantime, Lowery's been treating fans of his work to something pretty special in the form of daily dispatches from the New Zealand set of Pete's Dragon, which is currently just over two weeks into its planned 70-day shooting schedule

Ever the faithful updater, Lowery's already delivered some fascinating insights 17 days into shooting, including the following excerpt from the night before his first day on set, in which he dives into how an auteur like himself ended up in charge of a remake for Disney.

Writes Lowery in that post: “There was a point last spring where I had to choose between directing this movie and another script that I'd written. That other one might have made more sense on paper, in terms of budget and theme and content and scale. It was a natural choice. It also didn't feel completely like it came from me — which strangely, maybe ironically (although not really), this Disney movie did. This big kids' adventure movie (that happened to be a remake) felt personal. It also felt like a good challenge, and a lucky opportunity. And it felt like fun! That's something I care about more now than I used to. So I went with my gut, and now we're a few hours away from rolling cameras. I made the right choice. I'm very proud of the fact that Toby Halbrooks and I are the only writers to have touched this script; that it feels like our film as much as it is the studio's; that we've managed to keep it personal and strange and weird and fun. I'm excited for people to see it. I'm even more excited to make it.”

Subsequent days deliver interesting nuggets of their own — like Lowery's thoughts on using green screen for the first time ever (Day 4), his opinion on the virtues of making kids do their own stunts (Day 6) or his takes on framing shots and editing together rough cuts on unfamiliar software platforms.

In other words? The whole thing's a film nerd's wet dream. It's also a pretty fascinating look into the inner workings of a pretty damn intriguing artistic mind.

Even better? There's something like six weeks more of these updates to look forward to.