Don't talk to McConaughey about blue screens. ''In this movie,'' he reports, ''we've got actors in the same frame with downed, bloody, dead dragons.'' You heard it here first, folks: hot McConaughey-on-dragon action. Because this time (like so many times before), it's personal. In a postapocalyptic future, blaze-belching nasties have reduced human civilization to cinders. Our only hope? A British firefighter (Bale), a comely 'copter pilot (Scorupco), and a brash, tattooed American named Van Zan (McConaughey). ''It's pretty medieval,'' the Texan says of his favorite weaponry, an ax-and-pick combination he designed with director Bowman (who last directed the big-screen ''X-Files''). ''We've got a tank, we've got a harpoon. But the ax is what I call the coup de grace.''
But don't feel sorry for the steroidal salamanders. ''They're just mean, badass reptiles,'' says McConaughey. In other words, it's no ''Pete's Dragon;'' indeed, ''Reign of Fire'' does a real 180 on the flying-lizard sensitivity issue for parent company Disney. But McConaughey is quick to note: ''You're talking to me, the Dragon Slayer, you know. [Disney] probably wouldn't use those words. But this is my business, 'cause I'm the guy slaying the dragons.'' Okay, we get it.
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