Summer Film Season Heats Up With Studs, Fire-Breathing Dragons
Summer is in full swing, which means an all-out onslaught of high-energy
fantasy films.
Perhaps no film embodies summer escapism more than "Reign of Fire," a
post-apocalyptic dragon-slaying tale full of explosions, muscles and
courageous bravado courtesy of Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale. Set
roughly 20 years from now, "Reign of Fire" depicts a world ravaged by a
centuries-old dragon and her offspring, accidentally awakened by
construction in London.
For McConaughey, who earned his reputation taking on heavy-duty subject
matter in 1996's "A Time to Kill" and 1997's "Amistad," making "Reign of
Fire" was a chance to blow off some steam.
"It was a lot of fun," Matthew said of playing dragon-slayer Denton Van Zan.
"I mean, there was no rules to it, slaying dragons in the future — go
be the man of action, the badass, the get physical, run through something
instead of around it, eat it instead of smell it [type of character]."
On the other hand, getting in shape to meet the physical demands of playing
Van Zan wasn't all fun and games.
"I worked out on the ranch a couple of months," he said, referring to the
property he owns in Texas. "[I] did a lot of running, did a lot of building,
wrestled with the cows a little bit. Anything I could pick up or carry
somewhere, I would do that instead of put in the back of a truck. ...
Boxing, running around barefoot. And when it was 110 degrees in the sun, I
started running miles and miles barefoot to get the soles of my feet
toughened up."
McConaughey's co-star, who portrayed a deranged yuppie obsessed with his
physique in the Bret Easton Ellis novel-turned-movie "American Psycho," had
other ideas about what the role would require.
"I actually dieted," Bale said. "Because I can't imagine [my character] as
being pretty [big], because I thought they are going through a food
shortage, these people are probably going to be scrawny. I arrived in
Ireland, though, and I saw Matthew [as] Van Zan. And I just looked at him
and just went, 'Holy sh--!'
"You know a whole dynamic of this movie is the two of us clashing and us
both being leaders and sort of control freaks. And I have to really look
like I can be psychologically and physically a challenge to his character.
And he was in such incredible shape. I kind of desperately worked out for a
couple of weeks, to try and look like I could, you know, face off against
him."
Audiences will be able to see Bale face off against McConaughey and a whole
mess of fire-breathing dragons when "Reign of Fire" hits theaters July 12.