The remake of Pete's Dragon was filmed in New Zealand and has its Los Angeles premiere overnight. New Zealand tourism chiefs are hoping a new dragon will breathe more life into selling our country to the world, courtesy of a film based in Tapanui. ''The connection between Pete's Dragon and New Zealand is something we're working really strongly with Disney to make sure is clear.'' Pete's Dragon was created by Weta Digital and another famours New Zealand dragon, Smaug, featured in The Hobbit and was created by Weta Workshop. She said it was hard to to estimate the spin-off from Pete's Dragon but Tourism NZ research showed The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were signficant draw cards.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 08, 2016 03:11 UTC