Nic Cage explains how Ghost Rider 2 will "mess with people's minds"

How will the next Ghost Rider movie be different, now that the directors of the Crank movies are on board? In our exclusive interview, star Nic Cage tells us to expect crazy stunts, sarcasm, and a darker, weirder Johnny Blaze.

We're very excited for the new Ghost Rider film, where will the audience find (your character) Johnny Blaze in the next film?

He's become a lot more sarcastic, now that his head has been ignited. Unlike the first one where he was trying to keep it at bay. Now he's been living with the Ghost Rider for some time, there's a lot more irony with the character. His outlook isn't as quite naive as it once was. And also I'm very excited about what we're getting up to with Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor [the directors], they are very original in terms of their film making. Mark is doing things I've never seen a director do before — filming on roller blades, hanging on wires — it's like a stunt man, camera operator and director all in one. Brian Taylor is really so knowledgeable about film. In the same conversation, in the same sentence even, I can talk about Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and then go into Ishirô Honda's The War of the Gargantuas. He's the reason why I'm playing the Ghost Rider as well. He really was an advocate of that, and inspired me to take that on. As a result of that we're getting into some really abstract stuff that I think will mess with people's minds. I'm really looking forward to it.

Those two are exceptionally original. How else are they changing the tone of the first film, is it even similar to the original?

It is a completely different film. The first one, which I won't denigrate — I liked the first one, but it was almost like a fairy tale. Almost like a Disney fairy tale interpretation of Faust. This one is completely re-conceived, it's not even connected to the first one, it's a different origin sequence. But I think it will be a brand new experience. It has more adrenaline involved in the film making process itself, and in the movie when you see it. Again, I think the stuff we're able to get into with Ghost Rider is going to be a lot more abstract and not like anything you've seen before. So I'm very excited by it.

I've read that you're a big manga and comic book fan, especially with your work in Astro Boy and Ghost Rider. What comics are you reading right now?

I was getting back into reading some of the Man-Thing, which was something that Stan Lee made in the 70s. It became kind of a classic monster character that I liked. [I'm] trying to go back and look at some of the old comics [Jack] Kirby comics like The Demon. There's another one, his interpretation of 2001 was interesting, real creative stuff. Also Marvel's interpretation of Dracula, and I'm looking through the old Ghost Riders.

That's a lot of horror reading right there.

Yeah, yeah — that was really what I was into. I wasn't so much into the other characters I always liked the monsters.

Speaking of monsters, Vampire's Kiss kind of stands as a wholly original feat right now. What does it feel like to have made possibly one of the only original vampire films in the midst of all this vampire mania right now?

It's a great feeling. I've always been close to Vampire's Kiss, I've always believed in it. I feel like it's a movie that had to be discovered and the re-discovered because it was so unlike anything at the time in the 80s when we made it. And it was really a very small little film. I was always happy with the results on that movie.

Have you been approached by anyone talking about a remake [of Vampire's Kiss] ?

I haven't heard about that, but it would be a good movie to remake. Oh sure I'm not one of those people who get mad when people remake movies. I think it's only a compliment.

We'll have more from this interview soon, on Nic Cage and his next upcoming film Season of The Witch.