Ghost Rider
Short description
Ghost Rider centers on Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist who agrees to a deal with the devil to save his dying father. The bargain costs him his relationship with Roxanne Simpson, and years later he has become a famous daredevil who transforms at night into a fiery, skull-faced spirit bound to hunt down wicked souls. When Roxanne reappears as a reporter, Johnny sees a chance to free himself, but his path now runs against Blackheart, the devil's rebellious son, who wants to turn Earth into his own domain. The film is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name.
Mark Steven Johnson directed and wrote the screenplay, following his earlier films Simon Birch and Daredevil; Ghost Rider was the third feature he directed. Nicolas Cage plays Johnny, with Eva Mendes as Roxanne, Wes Bentley as Blackheart, Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles and Sam Elliott as Carter Slade. Michael De Luca, Avi Arad and Gary Foster produced for Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Relativity Media and Crystal Sky Pictures.
Made for about 110 million dollars, the film took roughly 229 million dollars worldwide, a solid return on its budget. Audience scores sit at 5.3 out of 10 on IMDb across 268,000 votes and 5.6 out of 10 on TMDB from 6,662 votes. A critics' rating of 4.3 out of 10, drawn from 137 reviews, places professional assessment below the audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- Nicolas Cage participated in writing the screenplay, but this is not reflected in the credits.
- Nicolas Cage was supposed to get a Ghost Rider tattoo when he played Johnny Blaze.
- Johnny Depp wanted to play the main role in the film.
- On set, Nicolas Cage wore a wig that took about three hours to apply every day.
- The project's original release date was scheduled for the summer of 2006. However, director Mark Steven Johnson asked for a bit more time to finish a number of action scenes.
- The Ghost Rider's skull was created based on a three-dimensional X-ray of Nicolas Cage's skull.
- One of the Melbourne bridges where the film was shot was not yet completed. The studio had to pay to have the road markings, streetlights, and other highway attributes applied as quickly as possible to film a series of scenes. However, after filming, all the work had to be redone to comply with Australian safety rules and standards.
- To create Ghost Rider's rumbling voice, sound engineers recorded Nicolas Cage's natural voice, processed it, and mixed it with the crackle of flames, the howls of wild beasts, the clanking of chains, and other eerie sounds. According to the director, the movie trailers do not convey the full richness of this sound, but in the cinema's multi-channel soundtrack version, the voice sounds truly terrifying.
- Crowds of onlookers gathered on the bridge in Melbourne to watch the filming in the nearby areas. During the four days of shooting in these locations, the crowds became so large that they created real difficulties for public transport.
- At one time, Jon Voight was attached to the project, but circumstances led to his departure.
- Johnny Blaze’s flaming motorcycle is a modern replica of Peter Fonda’s motorcycle from the film “Easy Rider” (1969).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
