Opening in South African cinemas on Friday, Augsut 12 is the live action re-imagining of Disney’s cherished family film, Pete’s Dragon. The film tells the story of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just so happens to be a dragon.

Hollywood veteran, Robert Redford, plays Mr Meachman, an old wood carver who has, for years, delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley), a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliot.

From Pete’s descriptions, Elliot seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.

The film, which is directed by David Lowery, is written by Lowery & Toby Halbrooks, based on a screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein and produced by Jim Whitaker with Barrie M. Osborne serving as executive producer.

The original 1977 film made use of both live-action and animation. The musical told the story of a dragon named Elliott and a young orphan named Pete in Passamaquoddy, a small fishing community on Passamaquoddy Bay in eastern Maine.

Elliott acts as Pete’s protector and is generally visible only to Pete, which occasionally lands Pete in trouble with the locals.

The film starred Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney, Jim Dale, Red Buttons, Jeff Conaway, and Shelley Winters and was directed by Don Chaffey.

View the trailer for the new live action film here: