"Superstar motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) strikes a deal with the vile Mephistopheles for the most precious of commodities, his immortal soul. Now Johnny Blaze is forever destined to ride night after night as the host to the most powerful supernatural entity known as the Ghost Rider."
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In May 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival, Marvel Studios announced an agreement with Crystal Sky Entertainment to film Ghost Rider with actor Jon Voight attached as a producer. Production would start in early 2001 with a budget of $75 million, with actor Johnny Depp expressing interest in the lead role. The following August, Dimension Films joined Crystal Sky to co-finance the film, which would be written by David S. Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington. In June 2001, actor Nicolas Cage entered talks to be cast into the lead role for Ghost Rider, and by July, had closed a deal with the studio. According to producer Steven Paul, Cage had found out about Depp being a possibility for the role and contacted the director to express his own interest, being an avid Ghost Rider fan.
In the following August, Norrington abandoned the project due to a scheduling conflict, leaving to film the action flick Tick Tock starring Jennifer Lopez. Cage eventually left the project as well. By May 2002, the studio Columbia Pictures sought to acquire rights to the film in turnaround from Dimension Films following the success of Spider-Man. In April 2003, under Columbia Pictures, director Mark Steven Johnson took over the helm for Ghost Rider with Cage returning for the lead role. Both had been drawn by a script written by screenwriter Shane Salerno. Johnson, rewriting Salerno's script, was set to begin production of Ghost Rider in late 2003 or early 2004. With production delayed into October 2003, Cage took a temporary leave of absence to film The Weather Man. Ghost Rider production was slated to tentatively begin in May or June of 2004.
Ghost Rider had again been delayed to begin in late 2004, but the lack of a workable script continued to delay production. In January 2005, actor Wes Bentley was cast as the villain Blackheart, having been introduced to Johnson by Colin Farrell, who had worked with the director in Daredevil. Actress Eva Mendes was also cast opposite Cage as the Ghost Rider's girlfriend. By March 2005, the long-delayed production of Ghost Rider had begun in Australia, with actor Peter Fonda cast as the villain Mephistopheles. By June 2005, filming had been completed for Ghost Rider, which was set for a summer 2006 release. The entire film was shot in Melbourne, Australia. Bluescreen scenes were shot at the Central City Studios in the Melbourne Docklands. Other locations include Flinders Street Station, Southbank, the Melbourne General Cemetery and the Telstra Dome. Ghost Rider was originally scheduled to release on July 14, 2006 with a US rating of PG-13. Sony changed the film's release date to February 16, 2007 to help relieve the studio's crowded 2006 calendar.
As an interesting bit of trivia, Cage had to have his tattoo masked as it is a picture of the Ghost Rider.
