HOLLYWOOD -- These days, every actor in Hollywood is jockeying for admission to the $20-million club.

Among the honored elite are Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Draco.

Let's back up a little. Who is this Draco character? He's the talking, walking, singing, flying, fire-breathing star of Dragonheart.

He's the last living dragon, who forms a pact with dragonslayer Dennis Quaid to help bring mankind safely out of the Dark Ages.

He's a cousin of Roger Rabbit, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy, and the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.

Like them, he's a computer-generated special effect and his voice is supplied by Sean Connery.

"Universal Studios sent me the script for Dragonheart a couple of years ago," Connery said.

"I loved the idea of a dragon who was also a philosopher, but I was very leery of the technology.

"I was afraid it would end up being 'The Dragon King.'

"I had visions of myself being an animated dragon just as James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons were animated lions."

What convinced Connery that his Draco would be light years ahead of a mere cartoon was Jurassic Park.

"I saw the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and learned the same people were going to create my dragon.

"In fact, they promised me Draco would be next-generation Jurassic Park."

What that meant was that unlike the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park who skulked around in concealing darkness or rain, Draco would spend much of his screen time frolicking in broad daylight.

Scott Squires, the film's visual-effects supervisor, says, "Draco is as real as a computerized image can get.

"The next step will be to create a computerized human being and let him or her star in a film.

"Draco is another character. He is not simply a special effect.

"Watch his eyes. They are in constant movement and they tear up just like real eyes.

"That's how detailed we made him."

Connery recalls that director Rob Cohen "took clips from 18 of my old movies that he said formed a library of my speech and movement patterns.

"I pre-recorded all the dragon's lines and the computer people made the dragon's mouth lip-synch them perfectly.

"I never believed it possible, but I can actually see myself in the beast. He's as much me as my other characters are.

"I'm so impressed with the technology that I am developing a film which will employ them again," Connery said.


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