Synopsis
Official Synopsis from Columbia Pictures: "Superstar motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) strikes a deal with the vile Mephistopheles for the most precious of commodities, his immortal soul. Now Johnny Blaze is forever destined to ride night after night as the host to the most powerful supernatural entity known as the Ghost Rider."
Cast
* Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider
* Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson
* Wes Bentley as Blackheart
* Sam Elliott as Caretaker / Carter Slade
* Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles
* Donal Logue as Mack
* Matt Long as Young Johnny Blaze
* Raquel Alessi as Young Roxanne Simpson
* Mathew Wilkinson as Abigor
* Joel Tobeck as Grissel
* Daniel Frederiksen as Wallow
In May 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival, Marvel Studios announced an agreement with Crystal Sky Entertainment to film Ghost Rider with actor Jon Voight attached as a producer. Production was scheduled to start in early 2001 with a budget of $75 million, with actor Johnny Depp expressing interest in the lead role. The following August, Dimension Films joined Crystal Sky to co-finance the film, which would be written by David S. Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. In June 2001, actor Nicolas Cage entered talks to be cast into the lead role for Ghost Rider, and by July, had closed a deal with the studio. According to producer Steven Paul, Cage had found out about Depp being a possibility for the role and contacted the director to express his own interest, being an avid Ghost Rider fan.
In the following August, Norrington abandoned the project due to a scheduling conflict, leaving to film the action flick Tick Tock starring Jennifer Lopez. Cage eventually left the project as well. By May 2002, the studio Columbia Pictures sought to acquire rights to the film in turnaround from Dimension Films following the success of Spider-Man. In April 2003, under Columbia Pictures, director Mark Steven Johnson took over the helm for Ghost Rider with Cage returning for the lead role. Both had been drawn by a script written by screenwriter Shane Salerno. Johnson, rewriting Salerno's script, was set to begin production of Ghost Rider in late 2003 or early 2004. With production delayed into October 2003, Cage took a temporary leave of absence to film The Weather Man. Ghost Rider production was slated to tentatively begin in May or June of 2004.
Ghost Rider had again been delayed to begin in late 2004, but the lack of a workable script continued to delay production. In January 2005, actor Wes Bentley was cast as the villain Blackheart, having been introduced to Johnson by Colin Farrell, who had worked with the director in Daredevil. Actress Eva Mendes was also cast opposite Cage as the Ghost Rider's girlfriend. On February 14, 2005, Ghost Rider commenced filming in Australia at the Melbourne Docklands film studios. Then in March 2005, actor Peter Fonda was cast as the villain Mephistopheles. Johnson originally planned to film before an audience at the Telstra Dome, but instead opted to create a crowd using computer-generated imagery. The director also chose to film in the motorcycle district of Melbourne. By June 2005, principal photography had been completed for Ghost Rider, which was set for a summer 2006 release.] In December 2005, musical composer Christopher Young was announced to score Ghost Rider. In addition, Spiderbait, a band that Johnson befriended during filming in Australia, will perform a track for the film. In April 2006, the cast and crew performed last-minute reshoots in Vancouver. Ghost Rider was originally scheduled to release on August 4, 2006, but the date was moved three weeks earlier to July 14, 2006. Sony changed the film's release date once more to February 16, 2007 to help relieve the studio's crowded 2006 calendar.
Character portrayal
Nicolas Cage molded his "hard drinking and smoking bad ass" character Johnny Blaze to have more depth. "I'm playing him more as someone who... made this deal and he's trying to avoid confronting it, anything he can do to keep it away from him." Cage also explained that Blaze's stunt riding was a form of escape and a way to keep him connected to his deceased father, who taught him to ride. Cage rode a Buell motorcycle for Blaze's stunt cycle, and a chopper named "Grace", which transforms into the "Hell Cycle", along with the character. The Hell Cycle's wheels, made of pure flames in the comics, were changed to be solid tires covered in flames in order to give the motorcycle more weight onscreen.
To express emotion, Ghost Rider's skull flames were designed to change color, such as being toned down and blue when sad. The film's visual effects supervisor, Kevin Mack, and his team at Sony Imageworks handled the difficult task of creating computer-generated fire on a shot-by-shot basis. Ghost Rider's voice was manipulated by sound designer Dane Davis, who won an Academy Award for Sound Editing for The Matrix. Davis filtered Cage's line readings through three different kinds of animal growls that were played backwards and covered separate frequencies. Davis then amplified the dialogue through a mechanical volumizer. Director Johnson described the sound as a "deep, demonic, mechanical lion's roar".
Reception
Ghost Rider was commercially released in the United States on February 16, 2007. The film grossed $15.9 million on its opening day. The film ultimately earned $44.5 million for the opening weekend, becoming the biggest opening thus far in 2007.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Ghost Rider has 23% overall approval out of 65 reviews from critics and a 27% "Cream of the Crop" approval out of 11 reviews.
Ghost Rider Movie Review by Kevin Carr
The last time Hollywood made such a flurry of comic book movies was in the late 80s and early 90s when Tim Burton’s “Batman” struck gold. Now, since “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” lead the way, we’ve seen so many more comic book heroes’ get their shot at the big screen. And it’s not just the big guys like Spidey and The Hulk. The second-tier characters – like Daredevil, the Punisher and now Ghost Rider – are getting their shot.
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