To cap off the GHOST RIDER news before Christmas, MoviesOnline had a sit down with Johnny Blaze himself, Nicholas Cage to talk about both GR, and the mess that was THE WICKER MAN.
With regards to WICKER MAN, which hits DVD soon, MO asked Cage if Robin Hardy (director of the original) had seen the remake, and what he thought of the final project. Cage had this to say in response:
“I have no idea. I don’t know if he saw it or not. I’m a fan of the original and I’m glad that I made the movie because they don’t make movies like that anymore and probably the result of what ‘WICKER MAN’ did is the reason why they don’t make movies like that anymore. Again, it’s kind of that ’70’s sensibility, but I’m trying to do things that are outside the box.
Sometimes that means it’ll work and other times it won’t. Again though I’m going to try and learn from anything that I do. I think that it was a great cast, and Neil La Bute is one of the easiest directors that I’ve ever worked with. He really loves actors and he really gives you a relaxed feeling on the set, that you can achieve whatever it is that you’re trying to put together, but at the end of the day the frustration that I had with ‘THE WICKER MAN,’ which I think has been remedied on the DVD because I believe the DVD has the directors original cut, is that they cut the horror out of the horror film to try and get a PG-13 rating. I mean, I don’t know how to stop something like that. So I’m not happy with the way that the picture ended, but I’m happy with the spirit with which it was made.”
Now is that ‘happy with the spirit’ coming from Cage, or his wallet? Seriously, behind closed doors, I think Cage would say something else. Anyways, onto GHOST RIDER, which Cage says is lighter in tone than what Steve Norrington had in mind when he was attached to the project. Meaning, as Cage put it, “there’s a lot of humor in the movie”.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but having your head on fire and being forced to do the devil’s dirty work isn’t shits and giggles. Plus, if you look at the Garth Ennis miniseries, you’d see that there’s anything but humour involved in Ghost Rider.
Hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be a disappointment, since Marvel is running out of my fave characters for which to do movies with, and I doubt I’ll be seeing Deadpool on the silver screen anytime soon. To read the rest of the interview, click here.