Hairpiece of Vengeance
First official Ghost Rider pic.
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USA Today has posted the first official still photo of Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage as doomed biker Johnny Blaze, the human alter ego of Ghost Rider. The photo reveals that Cage wears a rather noticeable toupee as Johnny.
The newspaper spoke with Ghost Rider director Mark Steven Johnson about Cage's fondness for comic books and his famous tatoo of a certain flaming-skulled Marvel anti-hero. "The irony is we had to remove Nic's Ghost Rider so he could play Ghost Rider," Johnson said.
The Columbia/Marvel Studios pic is filming in Australia for a 2006 release.
look at nic cage doing his best keanu reeves.
ah, the joy of bureaucratic filmmaking.
I hope it turns out that's just a picture of him at a drive-thru window after they gave him regular Coke instead of diet.
Release Date: August 6th, 2006 (wide)
Cast: Nicolas Cage (Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider), Eva Mendes (Roxanne Simpson), Wes Bentley (Blackheart), Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda (Mephistopheles), Donal Logue (Mack), Daniel Frederiksen (Wallow), Matt Long (Young Johnny Blaze)
Director: Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil, Simon Birch)
Screenwriter: Shane Salerno (cowriter of Alien vs Predator); rewrite by Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil, Simon Birch, Big Bully, Grumpy Old Men). David S. Goyer (Blade, The Crow: City of Angels, Kickboxer 2: The Road Back, Blade 2) wrote a draft, but it appears that Sony's starting from scratch with Shane Salerno.
Based Upon: The character of the same name published by Marvel Comics which was first seen in Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972. There have been two long-running Ghost Rider series. The first ran from 1973 to 1983, featuring the character of Johnny Blaze who will be seen in this movie. The second series, running from 1990-1998 featured a new host, Danny Ketch.
Premise: This is the story of motorcycle stunt performer, Johnny Blaze (Cage), who agrees to become the host of a "spirit of vengeance" in exchange for the safety of his true love (Mendes), but the price he pays is to be cursed with the avenging spirit that takes its form at night as a demon with a flaming skull on a motorcycle of hellfire. His newfound power is tested when he finds himself in conflict with Blackheart (Bentley), a member of Hell's royal family who intends to claim it all for himself.
The premise is a loose translation of what one of the early scripts was about, and what the press release said. Something that's worth noting however, is that the "spirit" differs from the comic books. Johnny Blaze was possessed by the demon Zarathos in the comics, while it was the later Danny Ketch who was possessed by the "avenging spirit."
"Oh you directed Daredevil and Simon Birch, a movie so bad that John Irving didn't want his book, A Prayer for Owen Meaney, to be associated with it, so he forced you to change the title? Well come on aboard! We'd love to hire a director with your credentials!"
I just don't get it.
Quote from: Gamblor HatesMySpaceandU"Oh you directed Daredevil and Simon Birch, a movie so bad that John Irving didn't want his book, A Prayer for Owen Meaney, to be associated with it, so he forced you to change the title? Well come on aboard! We'd love to hire a director with your credentials!"
I just don't get it.
Well, I don't think that this is a movie that the studio actually wants to be good. They just want it to be popular. And it's all part of the vicious cycle of the studio deciding what is mainstream based on the audience that follows what a studio produces as mainstream which are both contributing to the downward-spinning spiral regarding the quality of the mainstream movie. The studio deliberately makes stupid movies to please the audience that they believe is stupid, the audience laps it up because they are stupid, and the reason that they're stupid is because they were raised on stupid movies that the studio produced based on the belief that their audience was stupid.
that whole stupid cycle thing was really articulate and beautiful. it's just what I need right now actually. thank you.
Why am I the only one who's always fooled by wigs :cry:
On-Set Interview: Mark Steven Johnson
We talk to the writer-director on the set of the Marvel comic adaptation Ghost Rider!
Fans of 2003's Daredevil are immediately familiar with the name Mark Steven Johnson. He is, after all, the guy who brought that character to life, and later made it possible for supporting player Jennifer Garner to become an action heroine in her own right as Elektra earlier this year. But 2006 promises to be the year of Ghost Rider, and Johnson returns to comic book territory swinging the heavy lumber; enlisting Nicolas Cage, Peter Fonda and Eva Mendes for the forthcoming adaptation.
Johnson developed the project from its origins as a script by Blade scribe David S. Goyer and combined the disparate comic narratives into one dynamic and dramatically compelling action-adventure. Johnson recently spoke to IGN FilmForce about the film, which he describes as a combination of classic westerns and harrowing Hammer horror, and explained how he came to call upon one of America's greatest actors for Ghost Rider's fantasy made flesh.
Q: What sort of lessons did you learn working on Darevdevil and its theatrical-versus-DVD cuts that made this film easier to assemble for a theatrical release?
MARK STEVEN JOHNSON: It was an interesting experience because with Daredevil, we cut like half an hour out of the movie and the director's cut, which I do like a lot more than the theatrical version. It still has its flaws, of course, but I think it is a more complete version of the movie, and when I was working on [Ghost Rider] I wanted to make sure the same thing would happen. Luckily, Sony has had so much success with Spider-Man and with Marvel characters that I haven't had that problem, you know what I mean? There was never like, 'this is the part of the movie that's going to go' – there was no fighting over certain parts of the film that you sometimes get into. So I felt much more relieved about the fact that everything that I've written is going to be on screen and if anything was really debatable or if we didn't see eye-to-eye on things, we'll deal with it beforehand. Because ultimately a director's cut, I do think, is a much better film, but there's still battles you're not going to win, there's still things you'll never get, there's still short cuts you have to take because it's still not what you envisioned and that's the hardest thing of all – especially when you spend much of your life on something.
Q: Can you talk about what changed between your version of the film and David S. Goyer's after you joined the project?
JOHNSON: It's really a different script. The original script that David did is a totally different story and then Shane Salerno would come on and he did his own different story, and then I did my own. It's one of those things that there is no right or wrong to it, just like anybody will do your version, its going to be your version. David just chose a different story and I really liked it, [but] it just isn't the story that I was going to tell, so they are really completely different screenplays. I really like David's writing a lot though. I'm a big fan of him.
Q: How much of the script has changed since shooting began?
JOHNSON: The script is always in flux – I'm always making changes. It's changed the least of anything I've ever worked on, which is great. It was a tough one to crack up front, but once I felt like I did then it all flowed really nicely. What was really hard was just the concept up front, which is very rare. Usually the concept is the strongest part of the comic, and in this one the idea is great, the character is amazing and there's some great story lines, but... the fact that the devil made a deal with Johnny and gave him all these powers and Johnny took those powers to go fight the devil never quite added up. And everybody over the years kept trying to solve that and change that, so it's kind of actually a faulty concept in a weird way, and that's something that took me many months to finally crack it. And I came up with the idea of [Ghost Rider being] the devil's bounty hunter, that there are rules [for] heaven and hell on earth. The idea is that Mephistopheles has to find the best rider in the world to become his Ghost Rider. That made sense to me, he has to give him this power because he works for him. Then I got it – then everything from there flowed – but at first it was tough.
Q: What's the toughest part of translating comic books, and in particular Ghost Rider comic books, to the big screen?
JOHNSON: For this one, the visuals, because this is one of those you couldn't have made even a couple of years ago. Fire is a really tough thing on CG, and the skull and everything; it's just one of those that if it would've been done on prosthetics it would've been I think horrible. I'm a big fan of doing things real but this is one of those where you can't. When it came time to the movie that was the first thing, can we make the Ghost Rider? Will he look cool? Once Sony Imageworks did some tests we realized we can really do it.
Q: Do you feel any pressure following up Spider-Man at Sony after the series' unprecedented success?
JOHNSON: There's ton of pressure, but not because of that (laughs). They're so different. I hate it when people lump it all together as comic book movies because they're so different – they're apples and oranges. This is not a guy putting on a costume. I was much more concerned with Daredevil because Spider-Man had just come out and it was a huge hit and Daredevil was not known and Spider-Man is known all over the world. They both were red, they both jump out of buildings there was a lot of 'how are we going to distinguish ourselves?' [Ghost Rider] is more of a monster movie in a way – it's more of a classic kind of monster movie more than it is a superhero, it just happens to come from a comic book.
Q: Do you have any trepidations about the possibility of being pigeonholed as a 'comic book director'?
JOHNSON: I don't care (laughs). I'll be happy just doing comic book movies.
Q: Did you research the character a lot before starting the project, or were you familiar with Ghost Rider already?
JOHNSON: I've been reading Ghost Rider, Daredevil, all of these comics since I was a little kid. I literally learned to read by reading comics. This has been seven or eight years in the making.
Q: Comic book adaptations have been exceedingly popular lately. Do you worry at all that they may become less so in the future, or that they will fall out of fashion?
JOHNSON: I don't. Again, because I think if you really want to look at it American Splendor is a comic book movie, Road to Perdition is a comic book movie, and they couldn't be more different from this or from Spider-Man or any of those. I just think, again, some stories are better told graphically, but I think that it is true anytime someone is going to put a costume or have an alter ego then you're in a certain territory a very specific territory where things certainly blend in together.
Q: Other collaborators mentioned this film is heavily influenced by Westerns.
JOHNSON: Yeah, totally. There's been really two versions of the Danny Ketch and the Johnny Blaze story lines in the comics. Danny, I know, was [set in] New York, and I had to make a choice of setting it in New York City or setting it somewhere else – and again trying to diverse yourself from all the other comic book movies, Hell's Kitchen [with Daredevil] or Spider-Man and all these other movies that are in New York City. That was a great opportunity to say, 'we'll take it out and make something really different'. I always wanted to make a western and because of the rider I just thought it was a great opportunity, so the idea was to come up with a supernatural western, which I've never seen. I thought it was a cool idea. So it took me away from New York City, it took me away from the superhero vibe and just take it out into the deserts and take it to Texas. And we don't even name the city – we never say Dallas or Houston or anything like that. We just say it's a big city in Texas and we make it a cowboy movie; in a way, we make it a real western – it's like a Sergio Leone movie with a Hammer [horror] film, is what I keep thinking (laughs). If you slam them together you say, 'that's pretty cool – I'd see that.' That's really different, and Nic (Cage) and I will always laugh about it cause we always do things at the end of the day and say, "What do we do different." What's really different about it even if it's not good. (Laughs) And we don't use it but at least we tried something, but that is the vibe of the movie. It does feel that way it has this kind of darkness but also this kind of really…it feels like a painting a lot of times. It looks like a comic book panel in the best sense of the word I think, its got that feel to it.
Q: How intense is the action in Ghost Rider?
JOHNSON: There is a lot of intensity and there is violence. It's not a splatter movie, and I'm not demeaning that cause I like them a lot, but it's not a movie where we're going to see how much gore we can put into the film. That's not what its about. The themes are inherently dark – selling your soul to the devil, fighting demons – and all this kind of stuff is inherently dark, but that's also balanced. There is some humor to the movie, there is a love story in the movie, and hopefully we'll have both.
Quote from: MacGuffinJOHNSON: Yeah, totally.
ukkk
Wanted: Dead or Unemployed
Mark Steven Johnson, responsible for:
Daredevil
Elektra
Ghost Rider
Paul W.S. Anderson, responsible for:
Soldier
Resident Evil
Alien Vs. Predator
David S. Goyer, responsible for:
Blade
Blade II
Blade: Trinity
Tim Story, responsible for:
Taxi
Fantastic Four
One of those is not like the others.
yeah, but still.
Quote from: mWanted: Dead or Unemployed
Mark Steven Johnson, responsible for:
Daredevil
Elektra
Ghost Rider
Paul W.S. Anderson, responsible for:
Soldier
Resident Evil
Alien Vs. Predator
David S. Goyer, responsible for:
Blade
Blade II
Blade: Trinity
Tim Story, responsible for:
Taxi
Fantastic Four
this should be a thread.
On-Set Interview Part II: Mark Steven Johnson
More with the writer-director of Ghost Rider.
Howdy, Ghost readers! In part one of our interview with Ghost Rider writer-director Mark Steven Johnson, the filmmaker discussed the history of his latest project, the prospect of returning to comic book territory after Daredevil, and the filmmaking foundations of the upcoming adaptation.
Here, in part two, Johnson discusses his cast and crew, specifically Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes, who play Ghost Rider and gal pal Roxanne.
Q: Mark, what made Nicolas Cage the right actor for this role? What do you feel he brought to the character that wasn't already in the script?
MARK STEVEN JOHNSON: What's so cool about Nic [is] probably knowing how much he loves this character – he's been wanting to make this movie for a long time. It was one of those where again [you are] trying to divorce yourself from other movies, or other movies in this genre. I like the fact that [Ghost Rider is] a man, I like that he's not a teenager or he's not a kid who is learning about adulthood and all that of stuff. I like that fact that he's a man, and I like the fact that he's kind of our "Man With No Name" in a way – you have him very weathered, very tan, very lean, very hungry looking. I think it's actually more poignant that this is a guy who makes a deal in the movie as a kid, and knowing that the devil may show up, come knocking and say, "Okay, its time – I need you," and what's happened to him in those years. He now has become this kind of haunted guy, [and] I think it's a really interesting way to go.
What he brought to it is... he's Nic! There's a lot of my faults in some of the writing; I had certain clichéd things like hard-drinking, smoking kind of death-wish, Evel Knievel-type of guy. What's good about Nic is that he'll always say, "I can't relate to a guy like that what if he did this, what if he did that." It's always more interesting. Nic would always do things like [where] there's this scene in the locker room and he's about to go out and Nic's like "you know, I've always wanted to drink a whole hot pot of coffee when I'm really nervous in a scene." I'm like, "cool – let's try it," and he'll grab a pot of coffee and drink it. It's just things that only Nic can get away with; no one else can get away with it. It's actually funny and it's kind of cool or the way he would play a transformation scene and what that would feel like, he's so intense. One thing you have to say about Nic he does everything 100% – he never goes half way. He goes for it. So these scenes where he's changing and screaming, it's difficult to watch because he commits himself so wholly to the role. That's the biggest thing, the level of commitment – he doesn't give a s**t what he looks like, doesn't care, doesn't worry about vanity, none of that. He just goes for it and commits himself to it.
Q: What prompted you to choose Eva Mendes for Roxanne?
JOHNSON: I just think that she's really full of a lot of life and a lot of light. The movie can be dark and you need to balance it, and there's something about her that makes you like her and root for her throughout all of this. Because I set it in Texas, I thought it would be nice to have a Latina to open it up and make it more real – be more specific to that part of the country. I liked her and Nic together, I thought they were interesting, they were extremely different looking and I thought that was a more interesting combination than blonde hair and blue eyes like Roxanne [is drawn] in the comic.
Q: How faithful is the movie to the comic, particularly given its numerous incarnations and series?
JOHNSON: The movie is extremely faithful to the comic, but the one thing I did was I took, I hope, the best of Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch, because even though I like the Johnny Blaze stuff for me, I like the artwork and some of the villains and stuff that came out of the Danny Ketch era of the comic. So I was able to take Johnny Blaze, stunt driver, all the stuff that I use to love as a kid, but the villain is Blackheart, which is the Danny Ketch villain, [and] Caretaker is a Danny Ketch character. So I got to take my favorites from both.
Q: How much did you read comic books while you were growing up?
JOHNSON: I was always the kid waiting outside the drugstore (laughs). We didn't have a comic book shop in my town – it was really small – but we had a drugstore and they'd come deliver them in big bundles and I would always waited outside on the days they would show up.
Q: You seem to have an affinity for Marvel Comics. Were those predominantly the ones you read?
JOHNSON: [I read] all of them. It's where all my allowance money went – all my money. Not a lot of DC [Comics] and I'm not just saying that, swear to God (laughs). For some reason I couldn't get into them. Only over the last couple of years I started reading more independent comics; I came to that kind of late, to be honest – it just was Marvel forever. But now I'm reading more stuff, Vertigo stuff and things like that.
Q: The producers said that they want the film to portray a "real story." How tough is that to do with a character whose head is a flaming skull?
JOHNSON: It's hard. That's always the kind of balancing act that we have to face all the time. There's actually some real heartfelt moments in the piece. There are some moments where you go from the surreal and then extremely intense, frightening violent moments to really Beauty and the Beast kind of moments, or just the haunted man who's made a mistake and just has to pay for it everyday of his life. It's a real juggling act, [and] it's Nic who really sells it. Nic could really sell it, and he does, and not many people could get away with that, quite frankly. It's great for me; it makes my job so much easier.
Q: In Daredevil you threw in some visual references to John Romita and certain people who had things to do with the comic. Are you doing that with this character as well?
JOHNSON: Yup, but I'm not going to tell you who they are (laughs).
Q: How difficult or easy was it for you to maintain a balance between creating a faithful comic adaptation and simply telling a compelling story?
JOHNSON: To be honest, it's a little easier on this one. For Daredevil, you've got the Frank Miller era and you've got these legendary story lines; it's more like how am I going to combine them all, how am I going to cherry-pick all my favorite stuff? Or, if you get stuck, you can always go to the comic and say "of course I'm going to use this" – it was a luxury. This one you don't have that as much; I mean, you can't buy Ghost Rider right now in the comic shop. It doesn't exist, and I know they are bringing it back, thank God, but that makes it more difficult because there are some great stories but there's not like the perfect, epic story line [or] the classic golden era of Ghost Rider. It was more just a fantastic character and a fantastic concept, so in a way that also frees me, because it gives you more leeway. You realize that this is something fantastic but it's also something that's maybe not been handled as well as it could have been. It should still be out there and it's not, so that gives me freedom. Usually you just try to make it as good as the comics, [but] maybe you could actually improve it and make it better, hopefully. That's what you hope for anyway.
am I the only person who liked Daredevil?
Blade 1+2 were pretty good too, he just kinda blew the third (in terms of a climax)
Ghost Rider is Here!
First look at Nic Cage in character!
Sony Pictures has released the first official image of a flaming-skulled Nicolas Cage as Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider! The picture appears on a promotional banner at the 2005 Licensing Show International in New York City.
Ghost Rider's look appears relatively unchanged from how he appears in the comics. Flame engulfs Johnny Blaze's skull and even flickers from his eye sockets and from under his leather jacket.
The Licensing Show is where the studios go to peddle their respective entertainment licensing royalties. As The Hollywood Reporter tells us, "industry experts are expecting another strong year for entertainment licensing in 2006 because of several promising film properties being launched this week at the Licensing Show, including Superman Returns from Warner Bros. Pictures, Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest and Pixar Animation's Cars from Walt Disney Studios, Ghost Rider from Sony Pictures/Marvel, X3 from 20th Century Fox/Marvel and the animated features Flushed Away and Over the Hedge from DreamWorks Pictures."
Ghost Rider opens summer 2006. It was directed by Mark Steven Johnson and produced by Gary Foster, the team behind Daredevil.
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i want that tattooed on my back
Comic-Con 2005: Ghost Rider Panel
Hellfire may be hot but Eva Mendes is hotter!
Sony presented exclusive footage from the big-screen version of Ghost Rider at this past weekend's Comic-Con. On hand for the movie panel was Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad, co-writer-director Mark Steven Johnson and leading lady Eva Mendes.
Unfortunately, the footage didn't really show Ghost Rider himself; there were a few quick flashes that Johnson explained were snippets from camera tests with a crew member standing in for star Nicolas Cage, who was a no-show.
The extended footage explains that Evel Knievel-like biker Johnny Blaze (Cage, wearing a very silly wig) made a deal with the devil in order to save his father. Now he must serve as the devil's bounty hunter, Ghost Rider, bringing back to hell those who have escaped. Blaze's love interest is TV news reporter Roxanne (Mendes). Peter Fonda portrays the demon Mephistopheles and Wes Bentley portrays the film's main villain, Blackheart, son of Mephistopheles.
Johnson explained that the footage showed the demons in their pre-CGI enhanced form so they will look different in the final film. He also revealed that, in the story, Blackheart is tired of waiting to take over from his dad and so sets out on his own, which leads to Ghost Rider being sent to bring him back in line. Ghost Rider's weaponry includes the Hellchain, the Hellshotgun and the Penance Stare, which makes an enemy feel the crippling pain of all their sins.
Johnson and Cage are both longtime fans of the comic book character; Cage even has a Ghost Rider tattoo. The filmmaker informed fans that he has borrowed elements from Johnny Blaze and the later incarnation of Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch, but has simplified the mythology. The demons will be fallen angels who, went cast out of heaven, did not go straight to hell but landed on earth and became elemental spirits. Johnson was coy about whether or not fans will see Ghost Rider's Old West, horse-riding predecessor in the film.
The writer-director spoke about the Ghost Rider visual effects, revealing that when Ghost Rider is angry the flames around his skull will grow tall and white-hot, and when he is sad they will diminish and turn blue. Only his skull will be a CGI effect; the rest of the character will be Cage or his stunt double. Sony ImageWorks is handling the film's visual effects.
Mendes sang Cage's praises, calling him the coolest cat on the planet and lauding his "fearless" acting prowess. "That man has flair," she exclaimed. Mendes was happy that her character Roxanne, who was Caucasian in the comics, was altered for the film. The actress found the Roxanne of the old comics "too victimy," and she and Johnson both agreed that their Roxanne had to be more than just a mere love interest in the film.
Johnson and Arad ended the panel by revealing the teaser poster for the film, which shows Ghost Rider on his fiery Hellcycle against a black background. Very cool.
Ghost Rider just wrapped filming a few weeks ago and will be in post-production for about a year. The film opens in summer 2006
Ghost Ridin' on Down the Line
Marvel movie to bow in '07.
Variety reports that Sony has shifted the Marvel movie Ghost Rider from its original July 14, 2006, release date to Feb. 16, 2007. The new President's Day weekend slot is part of the studio's attempt to spread their slate over a wider period of time and to ease up the pressure on their revamping marketing department.
"I think everybody is looking at their release schedules in '06 and trying to avoid some of the traffic jams," Sony's Jeff Blake advised Variety. "Seven films for a summer is a lot."
The release date shift, however, impacts Marvel Entertainment, which "must now undo a carefully laid out plan of ancillary tie-in deals."
On the other hand, the February '07 slot gives Ghost Rider breathing room in-between fellow superhero pics Superman Returns (June 30, 2006) and Spider-Man 3 (May 2007).
Heeere's Ghost Rider!
The big-screen Spirit of Vengeance revealed.
The official film site for Sony's big-screen version of Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider has now officially unveiled what Nicolas Cage's Spirit of Vengeance will look like! Go to GhostRider-Movie.com (http://www.ghostrider-movie.com/) to see a ten second piece featuring Johnny Blaze, a.k.a. Ghost Rider, all fired up.
Click "enter the site" and then "The Rider Revealed" for the film clip.
Previous images of the character seen online had either been early promotional art work or images from the video game adaptation erroneously attributed as film stills.
The film's updated teaser site also features flash animation of Ghost Rider that's worth a look-see.
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NIcholas Cage is Johnny Blaze?
This sounds like a wrestlemania heavy weight championship belt match...i hope johnny blaze wins
When I was 14, I would have been anticipating this movie. Sadly, I'll be 25 by the time they actually release it.
February 2007? Really? Do they have one guy doing all the special effects? Are they painting the image onto each frame of film with an eyelash? February 2007?!!??!?!
I agree. Because of the amount of time to the deadline, I think it should be reasonable to expect the best CGI effects of all time.
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Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/ghostrider/)
Hm, there is no vomit emoticon.
Quote from: Gamblour le flambeur on May 30, 2006, 02:24:55 PM
Hm, there is no vomit emoticon.
Quote from: MacGuffin on November 27, 2005, 03:30:02 PM
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There you go.
Nicolas Cage on Ghost Rider
When the release date for Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider got rather significantly pushed back, it certainly raised some eyebrows. Rumors naturally began circulating that the studio was afraid of the film and wanting to bury it in the movie dead-zone of February. According to Cage, the real reason for the delay was a helicopter. Apparently, director Mark Steven Johnson was really interested in packing the film with some serious high end special effects but only managed to convince the studio to add them at the last minute, resulting in a severe production delay. As Cage explained to Coming Soon: "There were some effects that finally got authorized by the studio which Mark really wanted and they're pretty big and it took time to put them together and design them. So we had to delay it and I think it's good because it's something we really wanted to fight for with Ghost Rider going into battle with a helicopter." So there you have it, folks. Johnny Blaze will be fighting a helicopter in what is apparently a rather epic CGI scene.
Cage promises you'd like the movie; he thinks its added dimension of spirituality is something Marvel films haven't really touched on yet, which will give this one a style and mystique all its own.
Set Interview: Cage On Ghost Rider!
Source: Latino Review
Last year, Latino Review was on the set of the much-anticipated "Ghost Rider" with Nicolas Cage down under in Australia. It was a pretty cool time hanging out with Nic, Eva Mendes, Paul Fonda and writer and director Mark Steven Johnson.
When we caught up with Nic, he gave us a little background into what he went through to get ready for this film. In fact, Ghost Rider was one of his favorite comics; he had the very first edition.
He also held us in suspense talking about the upcoming National Treasure 2 and Next. Check out what else he said:
When we talked to you at the National Treasure junket you weren't 100 percent sure about this project, whether it was the script or the filmmakers...
Cage: It was always the script. It was always a matter of trying to get the script to a place that I felt comfortable with.
What element did it gain?
Cage: It was mostly different aspects of the effects that I felt were being diminished in earlier drafts and I thought it could be brought up, enhanced so that the movie would be more fun to watch. I just wanted to make sure that they were preserved.
What do you think of comic book movies?
Cage: Well, I've always thought that the comic book film would be wonderfully entertaining for audiences, because it taps into the fantasy world more than just straight up violence. And I had no doubt when the first Batman came out, because of the title and the character, that was going to be a sensational-- a very exciting movie to watch, combined with the technology that we have today, that you can take these fantasies that many of us grew up on and really bring them to the big screen. You have marvelous entertainment. Comic books to me are modern mythology, and so it taps into all sorts of psychological and soulful levels for audiences in a positive way, in a fantasy element as opposed to blood and guts, gore fests.
Seems like this is a really CGI heavy movie. How is that working?
Cage: I've always enjoyed working with effects. I like any aspect that's creative, and Kevin Mack, who's directing the visual effects, is a very creative man and a very interesting person to talk to. So, to me, it's just stimulating to be around it, to participate. I want to, after the production is finished shooting here, I want to go to where they're working on the effects and say hello and see what they're doing with all the painting and how they're going to make the fire work, because fire is, you probably know, the most difficult of all the digital effects to pull off. Fire and water, but even more so fire.
How have your worked with Mark (Steven Johnson) on developing the character and what input did you have?
Cage: I was concerned that this wasn't sort of your typical hero. I wanted to approach it from the point of view of someone who is beleaguered by this contract of selling his soul to the devil. So if you were somebody that was experiencing a great deal of pain, like in a dental chair you try to relax by listening to dentist's music or things like that, so I'm trying to play Johnny Blaze more in that direction than the hard drinking and smoking
badass. I'm playing him more as someone who, he's made this deal and he's trying to avoid confronting it, anything he can do to keep it away from him.
Does the stunt riding play into that?
Cage: Yeah. I think anything like that is a form of escape. Also, the stunt riding keeps him connected to his father, who's passed away. So there's a version of being able to keep that relationship going when he's jumping, because that's what his father taught him.
How familiar were you with the different iterations of the character and what appealed to you about him specifically?
Cage: The main thing that appealed to me about the character was that it was dealing with very complicated spiritual issues. And for a comic book, that to me seemed different than all the others. I have a line in the movie that we worked on in the movie where I say I'm the only one that can walk in both worlds. And Ghost Rider really is that, when you think about it. Spider-Man doesn't go into the supernatural or the spiritual world. Superman doesn't. Batman doesn't. But Ghost Rider really walks this dimension between two different worlds, and to me that is interesting. I find all that fascinating. I've always had an interest in the possibility of ghosts and the possibility of things that are in the unknown that we don¹t really comprehend or understand. So that made it more exciting for me. The other idea, that you can take a negative and turn it into a positive. How do you take this terrible mistake of making a deal with the devil and how do you take this curse and turn it into something good? Which, to me is unusual for a comic-book based movie. It's a pretty deep concept. And I was reading it when I was 10 years old. So that's pretty heavy stuff for kids to be reading.
Ghost Rider can't exist without violence, so where do you see that element in the film?
Cage: Well, he's the devil's bounty hunter. One of his rules is that he will never take a human being's life. But he will go after demons, other demons, and this movie's loaded with what they call The Hidden, which are these elemental demons that Mephistopheles, or Black Heart, Mephistopheles' son, is using, and so the Ghost Rider goes into battle with them more than the people.
How does he battle them?
Cage: He has these wonderful abilities, like hellfire and the chain that he can use and swing, and then he has the penance stare, where you can look at someone and make them review every bad, horrible thing they've ever done to anybody and then feel it and feel the pain of all their mistakes and sins and basically reduce you to a human jellyfish.
How is it riding the hell cycle?
Cage: I only rode the chopper, Grace. And also the stunt cycle. It's a Buell. They're both really terrific. The hell cycle, only the Ghost Rider rides that. That's the other thing. His bike transforms too, and turns into a demon hell cycle. But yeah, that's not much of a bike to really ride. You have to really know what you're doing on that. I want to add, though, there is a lot of humor in the movie. We've managed to really put a great deal of humor. Just character building humor. There's the relationship between Johnny Blaze and his best friend, Mack, is an interesting dynamic. Just humor about dealing with the irony of his situation.
Any difficulties with shooting the film so far?
Cage: No, this was a pretty smooth shoot, I have to say. The Australian crews are wonderful to work with. I really think American crews could learn a lot from what's going on over here. I don't know what it is, but it's been smooth. There hasn't been any hold ups. Everyone seems to be getting along terrifically.
How did you prepare physically, mentally or perhaps even spiritually before you took this role?
Cage: Well, I'm not kidding. I was in Africa shooting a movie called Lord of War, and we went to this place in the middle of the desert to shoot for about a week, and-- trying to remember what happened exactly, what was the name of the place?-- anyway, I don¹t remember the exact name. But there weren't a lot of people there. And I was stuck there and I was driving home in a van, there was a cobra in the road. And I said, Let's back up, let's look at it. So we backed it up and the cobra got up like that on its hind, whatever, it doesn't have legs, but tail, and attacked my car. And I was shocked, and I never got that image out of my head. And then shortly after that, I started eating less portions. I stopped imbibing as much, I didn't go out as much, didn't have as many cocktails. And I just kind of worked out a lot more, and got ready for this role. So I think it had something to do with this cobra.
A near death experience?
Cage: Something like that. Or just, he had this look in his eyes like, You got a lot of responsibility don't blow it. I could take you right now, but I'm here to warn you. Get your shit together.
Do you think there are no coincidences?
Cage: I do believe there are no coincidences, yes. I think everything happens for a reason.
Do you remember what your first exposure to comic books was and do you read any today?
Cage: My first experience with comic books was The Incredible Hulk. And I was living in Long Beach, California. I must have been 7 or 8 and I liked the color of it, the imagination of it. I liked the world that I could escape into. And then I started to read plenty of them and look at them. And Ghost Rider, I had the first one. I remember looking at that as well because it was such a marvelous iconic image, this black leather bike rider with a flaming skull for a head. I didn't understand what it was about, but I loved the way it looked. So he was an interesting icon for me. Those are my earliest memories.
How is it working with Peter Fonda?
Cage: It's interesting because when I think of Peter Fonda I think of this 1960s icon. Captain America. But I've been doing this for 25 years, and he's been doing it for 40 years. And it was just odd to me that there's only a 15 year spread, and yet I see him as this 60s icon. And then I thought, wow, but we're not that far apart. It's like, I started to feel thrilled and yeah, thrilled and dated. I felt thrilled and dated.
This might be a semi-personal question. How did it feel to sell your comic book collection?
Cage: Well, I had a bad experience, which, you know, I was-- what's the right thing to say? I was robbed. And they took my best ones. They took Action 1 and Detective 27 and Detective 1. And now today they're worth who knows what. But I thought to myself, because I'm not the kind of person that wants to take comics and leave them in a safe somewhere. I'd rather put them on the wall and really enjoy them and look at them. But after that happened I thought maybe it's better not to own them, just to enjoy them from afar, and I sold them.
That must have been tough to do that.
Cage: You know, it was and it wasn't. I feel like no one really owns anything anyway and it's time for someone else to enjoy them and have them. Now, obviously, whatever I was doing it wasn't good enough because they're missing. So I decided that maybe someone else should have them.
Given how dark the material is, and the fact that you're trying to interpolate some humor into it, how difficult is it to manage those elements?
Cage: That came naturally to me. I think that heavy material is inherently--I know this is going to sound strange--but it can lend itself very easily to humor. Because I think people, when they're in heavy occupations, you look at paramedics or cops, they have the blackest humor. But it's a way of coping with the situation. I guess that's the only way I can answer that. I'm just thinking about what I said before about being thrilled and dated. Yeah, because I was in the 80s. I was doing Valley Girl, and he was doing Captain America in Easy Rider, so I felt we were both [laughs] somehow symbolic of a time, of a period, of a time capsule.
Are you signed on for sequels?
Cage: That remains to be seen. I'd have to see the movie and see how it comes together.
Would you do other comic book heroes?
Cage: Yeah, sure. Yeah. I think it's a great, great way to express yourself with making yourself and a lot of people happy and not doing anything that bad or wrong like chopping people's heads off.
Can you say something about Next?
Cage: Lee Tamahori is directing and I play a man-- it's based on a Philip K. Dick short story called The Golden Man. I play a man who has the gift of pre-vision. He can see what's going to happen to him very quickly into the future and he's being chased by the FBI so they can put him up on a TV set and help them find bombs and things like that. And he's trying to avoid that from happening to him.
GHOST RIDER RIDES INTO THEATERS ON FEB 2007.
I'm so not enthused.
I don't even like how he looks. It kinda looks like they took a picture of a flaming skull and pasted it on Cage's body. Maybe I'm just pissed about how long it's taking them to release it. I'm probably not going to see it anyway, though. I just don't think I like Cage playing Ghost Rider. It just doesn't seem right. Kinda like Halle Berry playing Storm: she's just not African enough.
That trailer was quite depressing. Only positive thing was seeing Ghost Rider going up buildings on his bike. I remember that from the comics and it was cool to see it reproduced on film.
Comic-Con 2006: Ghost Rider Rolls In
New trailer unveiled at Sony panel.
The long-awaited big-screen debut of Ghost Rider was among the upcoming Sony films presented Saturday at Comic-Con Interational in San Diego. The film's director, Mark Steven Johnson, was joined by stars Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in showing new footage from the film to the crowd of thousands.
Footage from Ghost Rider had already been presented by former Marvel Studios topper Avi Arad during a Hasbro event at Comic-Con. A new trailer, however, was shown during the Sony panel.
The Ghost Rider footage recounts how biker Johnny Blaze sells his soul, becoming the title character. But Johnny turns his curse into a weapon against his evil masters, taking them on in a series of supernatural ass-kicking bouts.
The hottest parts of the trailer were the shots of Ghost Rider in action, complete with CG flaming skull. Ghost Rider is seen on his Hellcycle at many points, and whipping his fiery chain at demonic opponents (which obliterates them when it wraps around them).
Johnny Blaze's first transformation into Ghost Rider was a highlight of the piece, with Blaze screaming in panic and pain as his flesh starts to burn off his face.
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 23, 2006, 11:14:04 AM
The long-awaited big-screen debut of Ghost Rider was among the upcoming Sony films presented Saturday at Comic-Con Interational in San Diego.
by who?
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 23, 2006, 11:14:04 AM
Johnny Blaze's first transformation into Ghost Rider was a highlight of the piece, with Blaze screaming in panic and pain as his flesh starts to burn off his face.
sounds like a good time at the movies!
Quote from: modage on July 23, 2006, 11:49:06 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on July 23, 2006, 11:14:04 AM
The long-awaited big-screen debut of Ghost Rider was among the upcoming Sony films presented Saturday at Comic-Con Interational in San Diego.
by who?
Me, from the age of thirteen to the age of fourteen.
They missed the window, is the point I'm trying to make here.
Comic-Con 2006: Ghost Rider Interviews
Nic Cage, Eva Mendes and Mark Steven Johnson.
IGN FilmForce attended a roundtable interview Saturday with Ghost Rider writer-director Mark Steven Johnson and the film's stars, Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes. The interview preceded the presentation of exclusive new footage from the film during the Sony Pictures panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Q: You were a Ghost Rider fan since you were a kid, I hear.
Nicolas Cage: Oh, yes. I enjoyed the image of a skull on fire when I was a boy and the mythology of it, the Faust-like storyline of it, was so original for a Marvel comic book character. There really isn't any other one quite like Ghost Rider, and that's why I think he's fresh. I think it's time for a new kind of superhero and I'm speaking to the Ghost Rider family. Step out. We all know who we are.
Q: So how much fun was it for you and how cool was it for you as a comic book fan to finally play a comic book character?
Cage: It was wonderful for me because, as you know, it's been a long time that I've been trying to do it. But I'm a big believer that the right character is the one that ultimately happens. While I enjoyed Superman, I enjoyed the new movie, I think Brandon [Routh] was the right choice for that part, and I absolutely think that Ghost Rider is the right choice for me to play. It's a better match. I'm glad it worked out this way and I want you all to see it.
Q: So you do everything? Even when he's got the flaming skull and is on the bike?
Cage: Well, I'll let Mark talk about that because there were a lot of creative people that [we] worked with, Kevin Mack, that did a lot of designing.
Mark Steven Johnson: A bunch of the times it's Nick and some of the times it depends if there's a stunt involved. It's both. It's quite an elaborate get-up they had. Interactive fire has been kind of the bane of our existence these last few years. CG fire's the toughest thing to do. And what we'd do is we'd have a green neoprene hood on [Cage] with these lights that would give you interactive lighting on your shoulders. Remove the head and then we could put in the skull and fire and what not. But it proved to be a lot more difficult than we thought. It was real fire for all purposes and as you move, the fire wouldn't move the way it should have. So we spent this tremendous amount of time working at getting all of Nic's expressions in the skull, which is hard to do without lips or eyes or a tongue. And still make it look like it's Nic.
Q: Nic, you tend to immerse yourself deeply into your characters. How deep did you get with Ghost Rider?
Cage: I was invited in early on in the process so I like to think I was building it from scratch along with Mark and as he was writing it we would talk. And even right before we went to film in Australia, we were coming up with ideas to add on to the character. I think traditionalists of the comic book will be happy but we did build up the story and add on to the character. There's little habits that he has. He has a fetish for jellybeans and he reads a lot but he's something of a cowboy. Mark was very excited about the Western element of the character, harkening back to the original Ghost Rider which Sam [Elliott] plays.
Eva Mendes: He's a Karen Carpenter fan, which I found very interesting.
Cage: Yes, Ghost Rider is a Karen Carpenter fan.
Johnson: I promise this will make sense! I swear! [laughter]
Cage: The way I thought of that was I remembered when I was in a dental chair. They always play these soft, soothing types of music. And Johnny Blaze is sort of literally sitting in a dental chair every second of the day wondering when the devil is going to come and claim his purchase. So I think he's constantly trying to relax. So instead of the bourbon-drinking, chain-smoking bad ass, I think he's such a bad ass that he needs to calm down with Karen Carpenter and jellybeans.
Q: Mark, there have been many versions of Ghost Rider. Which interpretation is yours?
Johnson: Mine is the original. Mine is Johnny Blaze. It's pretty much the classic story. Very few changes but it's all about selling your soul and, in our case, it's the father not the step-father who has lung cancer. Having to leave the girl behind and being cursed and having to hit the road. All that stuff is it. What I got from the Danny Ketch era, which I love graphically, which I always thought was really beautiful, was some of the looks. The spiked jacket. This isn't the blue full-body jumpsuit. And the motorcycle he had in the early years of the comics I wasn't a big fan of. I thought we could do better. But the actual looks, with the chain around the spikes, that was all the later stuff from the Ketch years, which I liked a lot. And the Caretaker from the Ketch years was a character I always liked a lot and wanted to find way to use him, as was Blackheart. So a lot of it was taken from later but the origin and a lot of the heart and soul of it was from the Johnny years.
Q: Eva, can you tell us a little bit about your character Roxanne? She's a TV reporter?
Mendes: Yeah, I play Roxanne Simpson, Johnny Blaze's long-lost love. I was really happy that Mark took a chance on me because the original Roxanne was actually his step-sister, correct? So you changed that. That's kind of weird. I'm open but I'm not that open. [laughter] So I'm glad you changed that story point. And the girl in the comic book was blonde-haired, blue-eyed and different visually than I and gave her a little flavor, a little spice.
Q: Nic, do you still have your Ghost Rider comic books?
Cage: Oh, absolutely. I would never sell those. They're in my special room upstairs. Framed and on the wall.
Q: Is there a chance of a cross-over with any other Marvel characters and franchises since it happens so often in the comics?
Johnson: Man, I'd love that.
Cage: Look, I would actually like to see it. To actually have the comic book characters team-up? Because, and once again I'm speaking to the Ghost Rifer family, we all know that Ghost Rider can kick Spider-Man's ass! With one look. And I want to see that happen.
Q: Eva, what was the allure for you to do a comic book movie?
Mendes: Well, two of the allures are sitting right next to me. I'm a huge Nic Cage fan, and Mark Steven Johnson, I love this dude. I really didn't know much about comic books at all and then speaking to these guys and getting into it a little bit. Honestly, I wanted to have some kind of effect. I had a little superhero envy because I wanted some kind of extra arm. I don't know. Something! But I really enjoyed playing Roxanne. She's lovely. She's a reporter. She doesn't have fire coming out of her skull.
Johnson: I remembered you saying, "I don't want to be just the chick." Cut to you later with the dress torn and the shotgun. Shooting Blackheart.
Mendes: "Johnny! Johnny! Save me!" But it was fun.
Cage: Eva added a lot of fun to the character and to the movie. There's great scenes of her with a magic eight ball. The toy you would ask questions to. A lot of humor to it.
Q: How was working with Peter Fonda?
Cage: It was great. I'm such a fan of Peter. I grew up watching Peter Fonda. For me, it was the perfect choice in that he was Captain America [in Easy Rider] and I thought if there was going to be a Luciferian version of a bike film then that would be the perfect choice to get Johnny Blaze to sell his soul to Captain America.
Johnson: It's actually our first crossover. With Captain America. [laughter]
Q: Mark, how about the delay of the movie? Is there still a lot more work to do?
Johnson: No, we're close now but we still wouldn't have been ready. We actually really lucked out. We were supposed to come out in August. They saw the movie, really liked it and pushed us up to July, which was the second week of Pirates of the Caribbean. Most of all they liked the movie and there are things I always wanted to get in the movie, some really great bike stuff, which was very expensive and pick-up stuff. It was great that they gave us a couple of days to pick that stuff up and the flaming skull was literally still being worked on. It went down to the wire to get it perfect. It's a hard thing, as you know, if that doesn't work the character doesn't work and the movie doesn't work. So we thought we were so close we just didn't want to rush it.
Q: Are you open for a sequel and are you guys all signed for one?
Johnson: Not sure.
Cage: My theory on sequels is that they have to be better than the original so I'm open. I just have to see a script and then talk about it. But I loved working with Mark, Eva. It would be great to do something again. I just want to make sure we can do something to improve even on the original. Whatever you can do to keep going, make it one step better. I think the original's really good so it would mean a lot of sitting down and thinking about it.
Q: Who are your favorite comic book characters?
Cage: Well, Ghost Rider. But I liked the monsters as a kid. I fantasized about being able to turn into the monster to scare the bully away. I think little boys and girls when they see the werewolves movies, like The Wolf Man, it's very exciting. Monsters are fun to play. And with Ghost Rider, I got a chance to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I got to be in a horror film, in the grand sense of The Wolf Man, and a comic book-based movie. So, yes, to answer your question, Ghost Rider, the Hulk. Those were my real introductions into the comic book world because they stimulated my imagination so much.
Q: How much violence is going to be in this since the comic book has quite a lot?
Johnson: Yeah, quite a bit. It's an intense movie. Even though we were here [Comic-Con] last year, I'm happy to be here even more this year because we get to show some stuff. Last we had nothing to show.
Q: Nic, you have a Ghost Rider tattoo on your arm?
Cage: I have a flaming skull on my arm, yes, but it's whatever you want it to be.
Q: Does it show up in the movie?
Cage: No, my tattoos are for me. [laughter]
Johnson: That was the great irony. That we had to cover-up his flaming skull tattoo in the Ghost Rider movie.
Q: Were you worried at all about the other hell movies, like Constantine? Will Ghost Rider be in hell at all?
Johnson: For myself, I actually liked Constantine. I thought it got a bad rap. I think it's a better movie than most people give it credit for. There have been a lot of movies about this subject and it's tough because you have to build your own world and I never wanted to go into hell. I really didn't want it to be Spawn. That's not the movie we wanted to make. I wanted to make something on this world and it's far out enough with the flaming skull and the Hellcycle that we don't need to be going there, too. We just had to create our own version of this and I thought using the end of days was fascinating and the idea of fallen angels is fascinating. That's a really fantastic world and to put that into the shape of a Western, this Gothic Western, which I've never seen before. There's nothing like it.
Cage: You have to find the right balance to get it. It's a very fine line and you have to blend the joy of absurdity and comedy with truly scary imagery. I think the best example of that I'd ever seen before was American Werewolf in London. That was the template in my mind's eye that I wanted to try to aspire to get into that zone. Because I loved that movie when I went to see it and I never forgot it.
Johnson: I've always said that's the closest to our movie as far as tone goes. American Werewolf in London. It's got that feel where you're laughing and it's really scary and it's really intense. You're on the edge of your seat.
Q: For all of you, would you do another comic book movie? Not necessarily Ghost Rider.
Cage: Oh, absolutely. I think the comic book movie is a wonderful way to entertain a lot of people. People love comic books on film. I knew it was going to happen because I was an enthusiast at a young age and I knew that with modern technology when they started taking Batman to the screen and Spider-Man that they were just going to be enormous. But getting back to your question, the thing about comic book films is it's a fantasy world and it's thoroughly entertaining and it doesn't rely on gratuitous violence and you can charm children and adults alike. I'm very happy for it. It's almost a perfect medium for film, the comic book-based story structure, and I would be happy to do more. I think I would like to try to generate my own. Why, just the other day, yesterday in fact, my son Weston and I had a meeting with Virgin Comics, and I said I wouldn't announce but I am going to announce it, Weston has developed a character and they agreed to five issues of it. So we'll see how that works out. I promised I wouldn't say too much but it'll be Cage and Cage comic books at Richard Branson's company with Gotham Chopra, Deepak's son, is involved and so we're all talking.
Q: Much has been said about comic books being our modern mythology. How does Ghost Rider fit into that along with Superman, Batman?
Johnson: What makes this one so different for me is, there's a couple of different themes in the movie, this one's really about choice. Something that Nic had come up with during the shooting about second chances and about how everyone deserves a second chance and that's shown in the most graphic way we could, and the most horrifying and interesting and dramatic way we could. I feel like there are really big themes in this film. We're dealing with heaven and hell and we're in a big playground. It's not a character that puts on Spandex and fights evil. It's so evil. People keep saying comic book movies and it is but he's a superhero of a very different sort. I think there hasn't been one like it in quite a long time. I always felt like Nic was the Lon Chaney of his generation in a way, that's the biggest compliment I can give. When you see him today, quick cuts of him transforming, it's fantastic. If this was black and white, it would be awesome. It would be Lon Chaney, it would be Bela Lugosi. It's fantastic. No one could do it like Nic could.
Q: How difficult was it to come up with an opponent for this character?
Johnson: Really difficult because when you're Ghost Rider, you're the coolest guy in the world. Usually, your villain is tougher than your hero. As far as looks go, no one can be cooler than that. So when we came up with the Blackheart idea, the son of the devil's pretty tough, too. So we went big and Wes Bentley does a great job in that role. We didn't want to go bigger because Ghost Rider's so big that if you go with a villain who's bigger it becomes a goofy monster movie. And you lose all the human elements of it so we wanted to try and keep it more human.
New Trailer here. (http://movies.aol.com/movie-trailer-clip/ghost-rider-nicolas-cage?ncid=AOLMOV00050000000009)
It atleast has the cast going for it.
Mark Steven Johnson Talks Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider writer-director Mark Steven Johnson returned to the SHH! Boards and cleared up some things about the new trailer:
I just wanted to say thanks for both the kind words and the criticisms on the new trailer. It all goes towards making a better movie. There's a couple things I thought I'd mention that might help explain what you're seeing. First, the TRANSFORMATION. Ghost Rider is a PG-13 movie, albeit, a very intense PG-13 movie. The MPAA governs the movie trailers as well. And one of the rules is that you can't show people on fire in a PG-13 trailer. Obviously, this presents a problem for us. So for the fans who have wondered if that's all there is for the transformation -- God no. Not by a long shot. But that's all we can show. In fact, we had to cut many shots out of the trailer for being too intense or horrific. I'm hoping to post something on the official site on a blog in the next 24 hours so be sure to check there. Just make sure you download before it gets yanked off. Second, the VOICE. The voice of Ghost Rider can't be judged on an internet trailer. There are multiple tracks of animal growls, fire, rusty chains, etc. mixed into Ghost Rider's voice. But all of those tracks have to be terribly condensed into a trailer like this and so all you can really hear is a deep, raspy voice. Trust me, GR's voice will rock the movie house. Third, the HUMOR. Ghost Rider is not a jokey movie. It just has humor to balance the intensity (some of which you can't see in the trailer for reasons stated above). Remember that to us Ghost Rider is a known character. But to the general public he is very dark and intimidating. The marketing team are just (wisely) trying to reach as broad an audience as they can and move beyond the core group. Fourth, BLACKHEART. What you've seen in Mephisto and Blackheart are glimpes into their demons forms. But by the end of the film Blackheart will evolve into his BEAST form. You haven't seen that yet, I'm saving it. It's not exactly the comic, but it's closer, demonic, and spikey! Fifth, the POSTER. There will be multiple images to sell the movie. Some will be about the love story, the Beauty & The Beast, while others will be hardcore Skull shots. Keep an eye out for new images soon. Hope that helps. I'll check in again soon.
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(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmoviesmedia.ign.com%2Fmovies%2Fimage%2Farticle%2F738%2F738005%2Fghost-rider-20061009033330646.jpg&hash=57a81e796def02bfe18e6e598c5cdf971f958b0d)
International Trailer here. (http://www.sonypictures.se/films/ghost_rider/trailer/qt/480.mov)
No one went or what ? Surprising... Cage ! come on !
As usual, Nic Cage is so fucking awesome. Maybe even more so than as usual. He totally IS Ghost Rider.
The best thing about the movie is Cage, then comes the humor (funniest superhero movie I think) and also the effects. I hadn't been thrilled about CGI since basically never. Everything looks cool probably except the 4 evil characters that are kinda lame and really fucking weak.
The worst part is the whole conflict against the villains. The idea is really really good, but the villains are so lame and SO easy to beat it's not even funny.
Also I didn't get the ending so if someone could explain to me how it happened thanks
WOW I reread this post and I feel like I am posting on the IMDB forums !!! :bravo:
Quote from: Pas Rap on February 20, 2007, 09:04:29 PM
... I feel like I am posting on the IMDB forums !!! :bravo:
But you're not. :therethere:
Another comic adaptation placed in the wrong hands. It actually started off quite good with the prologue... but then the characters grew up and the interest in film dropped sharply. Much like Fantastic Four and Daredevil, the idea and kernels of a story are there (mostly because of the comics doing much of the work), just helmed by the wrong director and a bad script. The love story falls flat not only because of a superficial relationship, but largely because Eva Mendez Cannot Act. Pas is right about the villans; they really weren't much of a challenge. The FX of the Rider are fine, but it looks like all the time and energy were solely placed on that character alone.
for the record it's an epic disaster of imagination and humanity.
and someone stupidly points at something every five minutes.
Ghost Rider Latest Marvel Movie to Rev
By: Mike Fleming; Variety
Columbia Pictures has begun to rev the throttle on a second installment of the Marvel Comics character "Ghost Rider."
David Goyer is in early talks to create the story and supervise writers for a film expected to once again star Nicolas Cage, who played the highly flammable cyclist in the 2007 original.
Through a spokesperson, Goyer said he hadn't signed on yet. But plans are already under way to base the sequel on a "Ghost Rider" script written years ago by Goyer, whose superhero work includes hit screen transfers of DC's "Batman Begins" and Marvel's "Blade" franchise. The original "Ghost Rider" was scripted by director Mark Steven Johnson.
"Ghost Rider" will be produced by former Marvel topper Avi Arad, Michael De Luca and Steven Paul, with Gary Foster executive producer.
The activity on "Ghost Rider" follows a flurry of activity on Marvel characters at almost every studio but Disney, which acquired Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion deal.
Fox is: rebooting "Fantastic Four" with "Green Lantern" scribe Michael Green and producer Akiva Goldsman; mobilizing a "Wolverine" sequel and several "X-Men" spinoffs; is quietly developing a new version of "Daredevil" and working on a Silver Surfer film. Sony recently set James Vanderbilt to write the fifth and sixth installments of "Spider-Man," and Universal continues work on "Sub-Mariner." Paramount continues as distributor for "Iron Man 2" and several others expected to include "Thor" and "Captain America."
The activity is necessary for those studios to keep the superhero properties. If the properties atrophy, they can be reclaimed by Marvel Entertainment, which happened with such properties as Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man, the latter of which languished at New Line before Marvel turned it into the self-financed blockbuster.
Those properties were repossessed by Arad when he ran Marvel from 1993-2007, when he left to start a film company with son Ari just after Marvel locked in its $525 million credit facility. Arad said he left because he was exhausted, and because he was convinced that his number two, Kevin Feige, was ready to take over. That belief is reinforced by Feige's emergence as a possible replacement for Disney film topper Dick Cook, because he made a strong impression on Bob Iger during the Marvel deal making talks.
While the plethora of superheroes at other studios and Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park has raised skepticism over Marvel's acquisition price, Arad doesn't see the $4 billion price tag as untoward. He said the number validated the vision that he and Ike Perlmutter had when they implored creditors to spurn a $350 million cash offer from Carl Icahn, when Marvel was in bankruptcy in the late 1990s. Arad argued at the time that interest by several studios in "Spider-Man" alone meant that the film could be a billion dollar enterprise. Since then, X-Men and Blade also joined that billion dollar club, and Iron Man is well on the way.
Arad—who is producing both Marvel's "Ghost Rider" and "Spider-Man" at Columbia—said that on films that Disney doesn't distribute, Marvel gets lucrative first dollar gross fees, and is well compensated for the use of its characters in the Universal theme park. The acquisition's real upside, the library of Marvel characters, can be mined for decades, Arad said.
The Goyer-scripted "Blade" trilogy, Marvel's first film success, is a good example.
"The character was virtually unknown, didn't even have his own comic book, and had been part of `Tombs of Dracula,'" Arad said. "It tells you what can happen if you unleash a library with the right creative partners."
Arad mentioned Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Power Pack, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers as prime movie properties.
"I had this poster of the Marvel universe, with these beautifully drawn characters, and we used to say you could throw a dart, hit a character and make a hit movie under the Marvel brand," Arad said. "There is long list yet to be unleashed. I think this will look like a smart deal over time, because Disney is a company that knows how to exploit a brand."
Arad is separately developing a slate that includes the Catherine Hardwicke-directed adaptation of the James Patterson novel series "Maximum Ride" at Columbia, "Ghost in the Shell" for DreamWorks. Arad has also secured rights to make a CGI animated feature based on the venerable strongman "Popeye."