When I interviewed Nicolas Cage for Mandy a couple of months ago, one of the things I picked up on was how self-aware he was. He knows how good, or not so good, every single movie he's been in is. He's not going into anything blind. At this point in his career he's also brutally honest about the choices he's made.
Joblo caught up with Cage and talked to him about his two failed Ghost Rider movies, which are pretty horrible by just about any measure. Cage really thinks the Spirit of Vengeance needs to to come back to the big screen, but admits it should be R-rated and definitely with somebody other than himself sporting the flaming skull.
"Y'know, GHOST RIDER was a movie that always should've been an R-rated movie. David Goyer had a brilliant script, which I wanted to do with David and for whatever reason they just didn't let us make the movie. But that movie is a still a movie that should be made, not with me obviously, but it should be an R-rated movie-heck, DEADPOOL was R-rated and that did great. GHOST RIDER was designed to be a scary superhero with an R-rating and edge and they just didn't have it worked out back then."
Personally, I always thought Drive Angry was the perfect template for what a Ghost Rider movie should be. R-rated, over-the-top, Biblical and ridiculous with lots of cool rides. The character had a red-hot bunch of appearances in Agents of SHIELD so he's officially part of the MCU, and maybe one day we'll see him race onto the big screen. It just won't be with Nicolas Cage.
