Ghost Rider director Mark Steven Johnson and stars Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes talked with fans at San Diego's Comic-Con last week.
Cage said he's been a fan of the comic since he was a kid. "The Faust-like storyline was so original for a marvel comic book character," he said. "He's fresh, it's time for a new kind of super-hero."
Regarding his finally getting a super-hero role: "It's been a long time I've been trying to do it. I've always thought the right character is the one that you end up doing. It's a better match than Superman for me." Cage was linked to the lead in the Superman movie in the early 1990s when Tim Burton was going to direct.
Regarding the FX: "CG fire is the toughest thing to do," Johnson said. "It proved to be a lot more difficult that we thought. It took a tremendous amount of time ... trying to get all of Nic's expressions in the skull."
"I think traditionalists will be happy but we did bulit up the story and added to the story. Little habits -- fetish for jelly beans, reads a lot but very much a cowboy - hearkening back to the original Ghost Rider which Sam reads.
"He's a Karen Carpenter fan," adds Mendes, which refers to a quirk Cage added thinking back to the relaxing music that dentists play in their offices because "he needs to calm done because he's such a bad ass," Cage said.
You can listen to the audio interview here.
Here's the plot synopsis:
"In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life. Years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Roxanne, now a gogetting reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny's soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery Ghost Rider, a supernatural agent of vengeance and justice. Mephistopheles charges Johnny with defeating the despicable Blackheart, Mephistopheles's nemesis and son, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrible than the old one."
Look for the film Feb. 16.