Brian Taylor Explains Dual Role of Nic Cage in GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE

Nic Cage will be returning in the title role for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. His director hinted that the actor would be playing a "dual role" in this new film. What exactly did he mean by that?

On Wednesday, news came that Sony had cut the Ghost Rider sequel's budget nearly in half. A tweet from co-director Brian Taylor on the same day also caused a stir on some film blogs. Speculation was that Cage may be playing two roles; one good, one evil.

The dual role of blaze/zarathos will be a nic cage classic
27 Oct

In the comics, Zarathos is the demon that was bound to Johnny Blaze and the two formed the Ghost Rider which means that, for all intents and purposes, Cage was already playing him in the first movie. Collider caught up with Taylor (Crank) who helped set the record straight.

"zarathos is the spirit of vengeance that inhabits john blaze when he becomes ghost rider. unlike the 1st movie, where the rider was stiffly acted out by a various stunt guys, nic will be playing all the ghost rider stuff himself – and we are creating a whole physical language for the demon that is different from the human blaze."

In the original, stunt men and the f/x team were solely responsible for the Ghost Rider's portrayal. The hope is that using Cage himself will bring more depth and personality to the CG driven character, one of the larger criticisms that the first movie received.

In the sequel Johnny Blaze, aka Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage), is hiding out in remote Eastern Europe and struggling to repress his curse. Blaze is recruited by a sect to take on the devil, who wants to take over his mortal son’s body on the boy’s birthday.

Idris Elba, Ciaran Hinds, Placido Violante and possibly Christopher Lambert have also been cast in the film, which is scheduled to film on location in Eastern Europe. Based off of a screenplay written by David Goyer and directed by duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is expected to ride into 2D and 3D theaters February 17th, 2012.