With the Face/Off star on board, it was game on. There was never talk of anyone else playing Johnny Blaze,' Johnson adds.

'Nic was always the choice for Ghost Rider. As the helmer tells us, there was no other actor considered for his take on Johnny Blaze. Columbia locked down the rights in the spring of 2002 and by April 2003, Johnson had boarded the project fresh off of the Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil.įurthermore, Johnson was quick to reach out to Cage to gauge interest. When the attempt by Voight and Dimension failed, Sony's Columbia swooped in and got the rights to the character. (Photo: Marvel Entertainment)Īfter attempts at a Ghost Rider flick by Hurd and Voight fell by the wayside, the character caught the eye of his first major movie studio. Little did he know it would be just a matter of months before finding himself back in the saddle. It wasn't too long before Cage himself decided to pass because of the deteriorating crew behind the camera. Stephen Norrington, the director who had just directed Blade, decided to step down from the project. While this iteration eventually had a major star attached in Cage, other pieces started slipping. Though Depp never inked any deals, there was enough chatter around town it caught the ear of an actor who happened to be a life-long fan of the character: Nicolas Cage. At the time, Dimension Films was financing the project alongside Crystal Sky Entertainment, and the production even had Johnny Depp interested in starring.

Goyer to pen the script for another stab at the character. A few years later, Jon Voight hired Blade scribe David S.

There was an attempt by Gale Ann Hurd in 1997 to get a movie off the ground, though that crumbled. Towards the turn of the century, numerous producers tried getting their hands on the character. Suddenly, Ghost Rider found himself in the center of all the hustle and bustle of Tinsel Town. Wesley Snipes' Blade was on its way to the box office and 20th Century Fox was laying the groundwork for its own franchise based on Marvel's X-Men. Coincidentally enough, it's right when that second major Ghost Rider comics story wrapped when Hollywood started looking heavily into adapting comic book properties for the silver screen.

That's a negative ghost rider