Eva Mendes, Director Mark Steven Johnson and Producer Avi Arad turned up at this year's San Diego Comic Con to talk about "Ghost Rider" - the long awaited adaptation of the classic Marvel comic. Nic Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, a stuntman who makes a deal with the devil and becomes a 'bounty hunter of souls' in return for saving his father. Mendes stars as TV news reporter Roxanne who was Blaze's former flame, Sam Shepard is a mentor character, Peter Fonda goes low key as the devil himself, and Wes Bentley plays the devil's son Blackheart who sets out on his own to take over dad's empire - so Blaze is sent to bring him into line.
A new trailer was shown giving us an idea of the film's interesting look which seems to be played like a modern-day "Once Upon A Time In The West" western meets a Hammer horror film. Cage can be seen performing an Evel Knievel style stunt at the start, there was glimpses of all the major characters and Ghost Rider's bike in action including one funny scene when a traffic cop registers it on his speed camera moving at over 1000 MPH. The panel was capped with a reveal of the teaser poster which shows the flaming bike and ghost rider himself in action.
Johnson confirmed that the film borrows elements from both versions of Ghost Rider - the original convoluted 70's take and the darker simplified 90's version, but eases up on the mythology by having elemental demons of water, fire, and so on rather than full hell monsters per se. The demons and devil are subtle effects - when they get angry there'll be slight distortions at first (ala "The Black Hole Sun" music video) followed by more elaborate ones at the end.
When Eva Mendes first met Peter Fonda, she confessed she had never seen "Easy Rider" and so that night there was a party during which Fonda narrated a whole screening of the DVD. Fonda's take on the devil doesn't 'go large' ala Pacino in "Devil's Advocate" rather playing it subtle, this devil is essentially the 'ultimate salesman' and "a good salesman just fits in, he's not a guy that calls attention to himself" says Johnson. Mendes has one scene where she witnesses Cage's transformation and screams - she's proud of being "the chick" in this movie who's assertive but doesn't kick ass too much as such.
The look of "Ghost Rider" changes throughout the movie - hellfire affects metal in a certain way which causes the motorbike to change into the Hellcycle and his leather coat studs to turn into spikes. The change to the rider will see not an immediate burning but rather the flesh of Cage's face literally melting off to reveal the skull underneath. Its likely to get a PG-13 rating and unlike say "Daredevil" there won't be lots of extra footage for an unrated director's cut.
The Ghost Rider's head itself wasn't really revealed as the look is still being figured out and finalised but it will be a skull floating in flame like the comic. Said skull uses some complex 'fluid sim' flame effects that will see it change colour - white hot for angry, blue for sad, etc. whilst Cage's body will be real (he was shot with a green screen stocking over his head). The Hellchain, the Hellshotgun and the Penance Stare are all going to appear as part of Ghost Rider's arsenal. In one scene Blaze can throw hellfire and he can also manipulate fire around him.
