An R-ratedGhost Ridermovie could have happened and, according to director Brian Taylor, it might have been pretty great. Unfortunately, Taylor went on to directGhost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, which is easily one of the worst comic book movie sequels ever made. But the movie started life as a screenplay more than a decade prior in an age long beforeDeadpoolmade R-rated comic book movies a very profitable proposition for studios. A crazy amount of rewrites ultimately destroyed what could have been.
This was all revealed byBrian Taylorin a recent interview. As he tells it,Ghost Ridershould be presented in R-rated form and the originalSpirit of Vengeancescript, which was written by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins,Blade), was very much the version of the character that fans deserve to see. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“I think that Ghost Rider should be a rated-R, horror character. The original script that David Goyer wrote for that movie, which was actually written almost a decade before the first Ghost Rider film, was ahardcore, rated-R horror script and it was awesome. Then, in the time between that and the second movie, the script had been rewritten literally 14 times or 16 times or something like that to the point where it was kind of a mess. It was also just a little too clean and a little too restrained. If we had had the opportunity to do the original, rated-R Goyer script, I think that movie would’ve been a classic.”
David S. Goyer has been credited on a ton of comic book movies, with mixed results, but the dude has talent. Maybe this R-ratedGhost Riderwould have been awesome. Fans of the character got a pretty solid version viaAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which helped fuel desire for more in the MCU. Brian Taylor, while discussing some of what he thinks they did well with his movie, went so far as to say that the version of the movie that should have been would have been even better than the “vanilla” version that showed up on the ABC series.
“I think the cast was really good and I think we got a lot of things right. I think the design of the character was fantastic. The way we did Ghost Rider as a tar-bubbling, black,charred creaturewas absolutely the right take on Ghost Rider. They’ve brought that character back on TV now and he looks like the clean, vanilla, G-rated character again. That version really has no interest for me, but I do think a scary, rated-R, horror superhero movie is an awesome thing that should be done and I wish that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance had been it.”
For now, there’s no telling whenGhost Riderwill show up next in the MCU. TV seems like a much more logical route, but who knows? Maybe Marvel will surprise us and finally do a proper movie reboot in Phase 4 of the MCU. But that doesn’t seem like a safe bet at this point. Unfortunately, we only have the Nicolas CageGhost Ridermovies which, quite frankly, just aren’t good. This news comes to us courtesy ofFlickering Myth.
