Never Say Neverland

Don't Peter Panic! David Lowery's Peter Pan & Wendy is finally here

LIKE ITS CHARACTERS, PETER Pan & Wendy refused to grow up. The live-action remake of Walt Disney’s animated classic first entered development back in 2016, and David Lowery – who, at the time, had just helmed the remake of Pete’s Dragon – quickly set about scripting his Neverland tale. It took five years for cameras to start rolling and now, finally, the long-gestating project is finished. “It’s rather surreal that it’s actually done,” Lowery, who directed A Ghost Story and The Green Knight between Disney movies, tells Red Alert. “It almost feels wrong to stop working on it.”

Lowery has been enamoured with Pan since childhood, having first been exposed to JM Barrie’s story while watching Steven Spielberg’s ET, in which Dee Wallace’s mother reads the original book to a young Drew Barrymore. Next for Lowery came the 1954 musical version featuring Mary Martin (recorded for television), which made him wonder how people were actually flying.