Ghost Rider (film) Trivia

Johnny Depp was interested in playing the title role. [[Eric Bana] was also in heavy contention for the title role.

Jon Voight was attached to the project at one point but dropped out.

Nicolas Cage had to have his Ghost Rider tattoo covered with make-up in order to play Johnny Blaze (Ghost Rider).

A large group of on-lookers converged on a bridge in Melbourne to watch scenes being filmed in a nearby location. Over the four days of filming at this location, the crowds grew so large that traffic was often disrupted and public transport operators reported an unusual jump in passenger traffic to the area.

Some scenes were filmed near Flinders St Station, the busiest railway station in Melbourne. Parts of the station were closed for filming, as well as minor alterations to train services being made.

Nicolas Cage's hairpiece required three hours to apply every day.

The head-on shot showing Johnny Blaze crashing his motorcycle on landing after jumping a long line of trucks is identical to the famous shot of Evel Knievel's crash after a spectacular jump at Caesar's Palace on December 31, 1967.

Continuing a trend in MVL adaptations, this film features foes not introduced in the series that this film adapts, but imported from other series. Blackheart debuted in Daredevil and Mephisto in the Silver Surfer.

Nicolas Cage's computer generated skull was made from a three dimensional x-ray taken of his actual skull.

One of the bridges being used in Melbourne was months away from completion, so the studio paid to have tar, lines, lights, etc., added to the highway for filming purposes. The work was then ripped up and redone to meet Australian Safety Standards.

The shotgun used in the movie is a Model 1887 Winchester lever-action shotgun.

Nicolas Cage wrote sections of the script.

There is a scene in the movie where the Ghost Rider (played by Nicolas Cage), while riding through the desert, rides past a lizard on a rock. The lizard bursts into flame. This is strongly reminiscent of a similar scene from another Nicolas Cage movie, Raising Arizona (1987). In that movie, Cage's character has a dream where his evil side is riding through the desert on a motorcycle, and shoots a lizard off a rock by the side of the road. The camera angles are practically identical.

When both Ghost Riders (Johnny Blaze and Carter Slade) ride together to San Venganza there is a scene where Blaze is riding in the foreground with Slade just behind him and slightly in front so both can be clearly seen. This scene pays homage to a painting and its late artist David Mann. The painting was entitled appropriately "Ghost Rider" but had nothing to do with the Marvel character.

Blackheart quotes the Bible at Mark 5:9 when he says, "My name is Legion, for we are many" after absorbing the souls of the damned at San Venganza. This quote was spoken by a demon-possessed man who was cured by Jesus Christ.

The Johnny Blaze video game seen in the movie is actually a game called "Crusty Demons" (2006) developed by UK games company Climax Studios. The plot of the game is somewhat similar to the plot of Ghost Rider: A group of hard-riding extreme bikers are killed while performing an insane stunt, only to be offered a deal by the Devil himself. He'll resurrect them and offer them immortality in exchange for them offering their crazy motocross skills to do the Dark Lord's work. An interesting side note is that Climax Studios also developed Ghost Rider (2007) (VG).

The Caretaker/Carter Slade Ghost Rider character is a tribute to the original Marvel Comics Ghost Rider (now called The Phantom Rider to avoid confusion). However, the character in the comics is simply a regular human who wears a white costume and rides a white painted horse, both covered with phosphorous for a glowing effect.

Director Mark Steven Johnson actually put forward his own money so that an action sequence where Ghost Rider battles a helicopter could be made.

When Johnny and Mack are on the tour bus and Mack is watching TV, the motorcycle rider shown is Travis Pastrana.

Was originally planned for a summer 2006 release. However, director Mark Steven Johnson asked for more time to complete more action shots. One of these shots is the scene in which Ghost Rider battles a helicopter.

During the shoot, Nicolas Cage was the guest of Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix race.

Was sent to theaters under the name "Costly Pact".

To create the Ghost Rider's voice, sound designer Dane A. Davis recorded all of Nicolas Cage's lines as the Ghost Rider, and then filtered them through three different kinds of animal growls (played backwards, covering three separate frequencies) and then played them through a mechanical volumizer, before finally giving them a fiery crackle. Director Mark Steven Johnson compared it to "a deep, demonic, mechanical lion's roar" and says that "one thing is for sure, his voice will shake the theatre!"

The flame tank chopper Johnny Blaze rides is a modern replica of the "Captain America" chopper that Peter Fonda rides in Easy Rider (1969). Fonda (as the Mephistopheles character) makes a humorous reference to this at one point, saying, "Nice bike!"

Barton Blaze calls Johnny "Hot Shot" in the first sequence. The French subtitle translates this nickname as "tête brûlée" - literally "Burned Head".

Field goal to field goal would actually be 360 feet. Not 300 as stated in the interview just before the jump. The goal posts are actually on the back of the end zone lines.

Seeing as he had absolutely no involvement with the creation of the original Ghost Rider character, this is one of the few movies based on a Marvel Comic that Stan Lee does not appear in.

Nicolas Cage is an avid fan of the Marvel comic, and lobbied furiously to play the part of Ghost Rider.

Nicolas Cage is an avid comics fan; he took his stage surname, Cage, from character Luke Cage, and his son is named "Kal-El", the Kryptonian name of Superman. He was previously considered to play Green Gobin in Spider-Man (2002), and Superman in Tim Burton's aborted film project, but Ghost Rider is Cage's first role based on a comics character.