Hey folks, Harry here -- just recently laid my meaty paws upon the production draft of GHOST RIDER. Written By David Goyer with Revisions by Shane Salerno and the most recent revisions coming from Mark Steven Johnson. Personally - I absolutely love David Goyer's hard-R GHOST RIDER script, and when the orders from everywhere came down to making it PG-13 -- well I knew many things would be missing. Upon reading this script though - it has become far more fanciful. Set in Texas (albeit shot in Australia - aka the smaller less macho version of Texas - heh) the film begins in the old west with the cowboy Ghost Rider - then to the seventies and the oh so very young Johnny Blaze - and his story of how he got hooked up with ol horn head. Then it flashes to the modern day where Nick will be taking over the role... The Father of the X-Games... ugh. But there's something wonderful about the doesn't give two shits attitude where he overshoots his landing to crash, and doomed to always walk away. Originally - the Goyer version was many times more violent, graphic and sad. He turned a visual icon into something far more. I miss that script - here though - he's got more badguys from the books. Folks like BLACKHEART and ABIGOR and the rest of THE HIDDEN. THen there's the CARETAKER and of course there's ol' sctatch himself. As written it'll be a very fun GHOST RIDER - just not the one I wish was made from Goyer's script. It's like - FANTASTIC FOUR - for me, remembering that Michael France draft - which was pretty dead on perfect... and reading the one they have decided to make. It's tragic - but in this case - the script at least is very fun, just not as emotional or brutal or vengeful. Here ya go with the pic!
It seems that everybody's making such a big fuss over the new costume for "Superman Returns" that they seem to be overlooking an even bigger atrocity. Now, I have to admit upfront, that I am in no way shape or form a leading authority on the character of "Ghost Rider" (or the comic books. . .) but this is just bad. Nicolas Cage just looks so completely wrong in the role of Johnny Blaze that it hurts. I admire the fact that the man is a huge comic geek and wants to use his star power to be in comic book movie, but surely there must have been a better superhero for him to play. I wish Mark Steven Johnson the best of luck, because he's gonna need it to make this thing work. . . One other thing, I know it might seem unnecessarily mean. . . But seriously, does Cage actually think he's fooling anybody with that roadkill on his head. The rug he wore in "National Treasure" was bad enough, but this is just taking things to a whole other level. If you use this you can call me Cineasta.
