But Clayton Tikao still needed to sell the ''a long way from anywhere'' location to the film-makers.
''We had to justify coming down here all the way to [West Otago] for what was at the time five days of filming at the mill,'' Mr Tikao, the locations manager for the David Lowery film starring Robert Redford, said.
Mr Tikao was scouting locations in Dunedin at the former Burnside freezing works in July last year, when the old Blue Mountain Lumber site at Tapanui was suggested to him.
About 3.30pm in the middle of a winter afternoon ''pouring with rain'' he got into his car and drove out to the abandoned mill.
''I didn't know where Tapanui was. I jumped in my car and took off from Dunedin and two hours later I ended up here,'' he said.
''I finally found it. It was near dark. I shot the photos. And I'm just looking at it and I thought, `This is perfect. This is it.' It just fit the story, it just looked right.''
The township, too, looked perfect to pass as the town in the film.
That was when Tapanui - population 750 - got its big Hollywood break, and five days of filming became 10.
''Bringing a large crew down here for a month is much better than bringing 300 crew down here for a week and a-half.''
In Tapanui this week, he said there was definitely a feeling of growing excitement on the streets as the crew began construction.
Tapanui locals had been very accommodating and welcoming.
He took it as his responsibility to ensure the impact of filming on Northumberland St, when it began on April 17, was not ''huge''.
''They are the tangata whenua of this town, and I've got to look after them.''
For a start, the crew would focus on the mill, a closed set, but on April 15, two days before shooting in the township was scheduled to begin, the town would be ''transformed'' into a Hollywood version of Pacific Northwestern Oregon, United States, circa 1982.
The Doug Ayson mural at the end of main street would be the one unchanged element on Northumberland St, though it would not appear in the final product.
There would be a movie theatre in town, a ''swanky hairdressing salon'' and a barber shop, a cafe would turn into a diner and the dairy would be a convenience store.
While shops might not have normal trading days, business would go on for the retailers.
''The town has to function as a town, even though we're dressing it as a location,'' Mr Tikao said.
''The facades get changed, but they're all open. This front street may be full of American cars on the wrong side of the road, so we may ask ...
if people don't mind walking a little bit further.
The film's actors, including Redford, were mostly expected to turn up after Easter.
Tapanui Dairy employee Allison Hei said it was all go. The town had much busier than usual, even before the full complement of 300 film crew arrived on Wednesday.
''It just feels like Christmas all over again. It's just go, go, go. It's good, it's put a smile on everyone's faces.''
Farryn Crawford and Aleisha Haskins' cafe Top Nosh, which was to be converted to a diner for the film, would close during shooting for six business days and otherwise operate on a new schedule, providing dinner for locals and film crew.
''We'll manage the best we can and if it gets too chaotic, that's all right, it's only three weeks. It's pretty crazy,'' Miss Crawford said.
She expected the excitement in town to continue to build until shooting wrapped on April 23.
''There will be a lot of rubbernecking. It's a small community so everyone will be right in there, I'm sure.''
She said it would be exciting to see her cafe in the film.
Filming of Pete's Dragon began at Stone Street Studios in Wellington in January and has just finished five weeks around Rotorua.
When filming wraps in Tapanui on April 23, the crew moves to Teretonga Racetrack in Invercargill for a final week of shooting.
