Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance trailer!


After Michael Steven Johnson's atrocious Ghost Rider movie, I didn't think there was any possible way I could get excited for a sequel, especially if he were returning as director. Luckily, Columbia Pictures felt the same way and fired his ass!

Columbia Pictures did a great service to Ghost Rider by hiring Neveldine/Taylor, two film directors who know what they want in an action film and who know how to do intensity. Something the first Ghost Rider sorely lacked, among other things.

I love Neveldine/Taylor's Crank movies. The first one I saw back in 2007 and was excited when I got to see a free pre-screening of Crank: High Voltage in Vancouver in 2009! After Crank, I heard they were working on a script for Jonah Hex and were attached to direct it as well.

I was not that familiar with the comics, so I decided to check them out, based solely on this information. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's Jonah Hex is now one of my favourite comic books currently. Although I heard they were recently let go from writing and drawing Jonah by DC Comics, which I think is a dumb idea since those guys had a bunch of ideas leftover they were never able to execute.

Unfortunately, there was some disagreements between Warner Bros. and Neveldine/Taylor on what type of film Jonah Hex should be. Warner wanted a PG film while Neveldine/Taylor wanted to make a rated R western. I guess that was not a leap Warner's was willing to take and stupidly fired the team from directing. At this point, the film was going through a re-write, half the film had been cast and pre-production had begun and in comes second time director, kid-friendly, Jimmy Hayward who completely butchered the character and movie. Even Josh Brolin made statements that he was upset with the outcome.

Shortly after being fired from Jonah Hex, Neveldine/Taylor are approached by Columbia Pictures to direct the sequel to Ghost Rider. Now I was torn, a director team I really liked are going to direct a sequel to a film I loathed with all my heart. I saw they were recasting a bunch of characters, which I didn't know if I was supposed to be happy or worried about. Then they started making statements about deciding not to use certain characters and making up their own.

THAT ALWAYS worries me.

If you have a comic book with a gallery full of characters to use at your disposal, and you find an opportunity to use one. Use them. Don't change their name, don't change their powers or give them powers if they don't have any. The only time I've ever seen a non-existing comic book character work in a movie was Agent Coulson in Iron Man and that's only because Clark Gregg is so damn charming.

I love the way Neveldine/Taylor are taking on the Ghost Rider. From the trailer, it looks like they're introducing a young Danny Ketch, which makes me wonder if they'll tie-up a trilogy with one more Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider. I wouldn't mind seeing it because I don't think Johnny Blaze got his due in the first film and it would be a shame to have only ONE good Blaze movie before they begin introducing other Riders.