Where the Red Fern Grows is a 2003 American family adventure film directed by Lyman Dayton and Sam Pillsbury and starring Joseph Ashton, Dave Matthews, Ned Beatty and Dabney Coleman. Based on the children's book of the same name by Wilson Rawls and a remake of the 1974 film of the same name, it follows the story of Billy Colman who buys and trains two Redbone Coonhound hunting dogs to hunt raccoons in the Ozark mountains.