Bryce Dallas Howard is in early talks to play the female lead in Disney's Pete's Dragon. If a deal is finalized, she will join Oakes Fegley as the title character Pete, with Robert Redford also in talks to join the cast.

No details were given for Bryce Dallas Howard's character, but it's possible that she could be playing a character similar to Nora (Helen Reddy) in the original Pete's Dragon, the daughter of drunken lighthouse operator Lampie (Mickey Rooney).

In the original, Nora's fiancee Paul disappeared a year prior to the story, after his ship went missing at sea, a story she tells to young Pete. We reported last month that Robert Redford is playing a local resident who tells tales of dragons that no one in town believes, which is quite similar to Lampie. However, while the original was set in a fishing village, the reboot will take place in a forest where Pete lives with his pet dragon Elliot, after his parents died in a car accident. Oona Laurence is playing the daughter of a mill owner, with other characters yet to be cast including a forest ranger who finds young Pete, the mill owner and his greedy brother. It's possible that Bryce Dallas Howard could also be playing the forest ranger, but that hasn't been confirmed.

David Lowery is directing from a script he co-wrote with Toby Halbrooks, with Jim Whitaker producing. While the original 1977 movie was a musical, the reboot will be a straight narrative filmed in live action, with CGI used to create the dragon Elliot.

Bryce Dallas Howard will next be seen in Universal Pictures' highly-anticipated sequel Jurassic World.