After years of making his rounds at film festival circuits with films like “Pioneer” and “St. Nick,” David Lowery eventually found a new wave of success with the critically acclaimed crime drama “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Lowery’s visually stunning and poetic style drummed up plenty of excitement among audiences and critics, and it didn’t take long for studios to take notice.

During this time, Disney was in the process of reimagining the 1977 musical “Pete’s Dragon,” and Lowery was at the top of their list to helm the film. He was quickly hired as a screenwriter, then offered a directorial role, which Lowery initially turned down. “I didn’t think it was going to be a movie that I could excel at, and I didn’t want to wind up being one of those indie directors who makes a big studio movie and find it’s compromised,” Lowery told Business Insider in 2016. But Lowery felt a kinship to the script he worked so hard on, and eventually accepted. The new experience presented both opportunities and challenges, but ultimately Lowery’s “Pete’s Dragon” was met with universal praise for its heartfelt storytelling, visual enchantment, and Lowery’s distinct directorial style. “I saw myself as an independent filmmaker,” said Lowery. “But I still carried that flame of wanting to do something big that would set imaginations the same way mine had been watching ‘Star Wars.’ So there is part of me that always wanted to do this.”