George R.R. Martin, author of the "A Song Of Ice And Fire" novels, upon which Game of Thrones (2011) is based, has said that Vermithrax Pejorative is "the best dragon ever shown on film." One of the deceased dragons mentioned in the 1st season of the series, by Viserys Targaryen, was named "Vermithrax".
"Vermithrax Pejorative" roughly translates as "The Worm of Thrace Which Makes Things Worse".
This was the first movie to use go-motion, a variant of stop-motion animation, in which parts of the model (in this case, the dragon) were mechanized and the movement programmed by computer. During shooting, the computer moves the model while the camera is shooting, resulting in motion blur, which makes the animation more convincing.
To create the dragon fire, the special effects team used a pair of military-style flamethrowers.
Some of the score by Alex North was music he'd originally composed for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) that went unused.