Nicolas Cage has always had a penchant for the devil and tragedy. The actor’s work always deviates far from the usual Hollywood formula and often ventures into areas that can only be described as, for lack of a better word, strange. Ironically, Cage has built his reputation on his eccentricities, which have made his roles spectacularly work in his favor.
Over the years, Cage has established himself as an unassailable figure on the fringes of Hollywood, an A-lister through the power of his dramatic work and yet ridiculous enough to be remembered more for his role in the 27% rated Ghost Rider than the 97% rated Pig. It is his work in expanding the comic book imagination that makes him a living legend to this day.
Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider Sets a record for Marvel
Nicola Coppola, nephew of The Godfather Director Francis Ford Coppola changed his last name after being inspired by the superhero Luke Cage, so when Marvel came calling, he wasn’t the one who turned down the role of the devil’s spawn on a motorcycle.
But the work was not so clear for Ghost Rider Director Mark Steven Johnson. After casting the hero, his main task was to bring an equally brave villain to the screen in the first live-action adaptation of Johnny Blaze. Considering that Marvel’s rights were still scattered all over the place in the early 2000s, the options available were already limited in scope and possibilities.
Johnson spoke about his idea of the villain in the film in an interview with ComicBook:
In my first draft of the script, the villain was Scarecrow. I always liked the Marvel version of Scarecrow and thought he would have been a really cool and sinister opponent for Ghost Rider. But the studio was worried he would be confused with DC Scarecrow, so we ended up with Blackheart.
That was a difficult character. The son of the devil. Wes Bentley did a great job. As did Peter Fonda as Mephisto. But I never got the story right. A hero is only as good as his villain. And we never fully understood the villain and his intentions.
Although a live-action Scarecrow would have been an interesting match against Ghost Rider, Wes Bentley’s portrayal of Blackheart established the character as a formidable opponent in the supervillain realm. As far as evil goes, Mephisto is the ultimate Marvel villain of all time. However, Bentley’s role represented an interesting twist on the previously considered Marvel version of Scarecrow.
Ebenezer Laughton vs. Dr. Jonathan Crane
The world of comics has always been built on the same principles, drawing inspiration from the same fickle world around readers and creators. As the Marvel and DC universes evolved in parallel, their storylines often spawned doppelgangers. Since the 1960s, heroes and villains have been reflected in the pages of both rival companies.
Captain America/Superman, Iron Man/Batman, Thor/Wonder Woman, Namor/Aquaman, Quicksilver/Flash, Doctor Strange/Doctor Fate, Captain Marvel/Green Lantern, Scarlet Witch/Enchantress, Punisher/Peacemaker… the list goes on. However, when it comes to villains, an interesting development can be observed in the case of a certain villain from the Batman Rogues Gallery.
Marvel’s Scarecrow aka Ebenezer Laughton, created by Stan Lee and Don Heck for the March 1964 issue of Exciting stories #51, closely resembled DC’s infamous Batman villain, created by legendary duo Bob Kane and Bill Finger for the Fall 1941 issue of The best comics in the world.
But while the DC character could literally paralyze and kill a person out of fear-induced paranoia, Marvel’s supervillain debuted as a contortionist, master acrobat, and overall a cheap copy of the villain from the Rogues Gallery.
Introducing the character in Nicolas Cage’s film after Christopher Nolan already had amazing visions in the “Dark Knight” trilogy would be a mammoth task, especially given the overshadowing effect that Cillian Murphy casts with his impressive portrayal of Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow.
Ghost Rider can be purchased/rented on Prime Video and Apple TV.
