Q: How much of the script has changed since shooting began?
JOHNSON: The script is always in flux I'm always making changes. It's changed the least of anything I've ever worked on, which is great. It was a tough one to crack up front, but once I felt like I did then it all flowed really nicely. What was really hard was just the concept up front, which is very rare. Usually the concept is the strongest part of the comic, and in this one the idea is great, the character is amazing and there's some great story lines, but... the fact that the devil made a deal with Johnny and gave him all these powers and Johnny took those powers to go fight the devil never quite added up. And everybody over the years kept trying to solve that and change that, so it's kind of actually a faulty concept in a weird way, and that's something that took me many months to finally crack it. And I came up with the idea of [Ghost Rider being] the devil's bounty hunter, that there are rules [for] heaven and hell on earth. The idea is that Mephistopheles has to find the best rider in the world to become his Ghost Rider. That made sense to me, he has to give him this power because he works for him. Then I got it then everything from there flowed but at first it was tough.
Q: Other collaborators mentioned this film is heavily influenced by Westerns.
JOHNSON: Yeah, totally. There's been really two versions of the Danny Ketch and the Johnny Blaze story lines in the comics. Danny, I know, was [set in] New York, and I had to make a choice of setting it in New York City or setting it somewhere else and again trying to diverse yourself from all the other comic book movies, Hell's Kitchen [with Daredevil] or Spider-Man and all these other movies that are in New York City. That was a great opportunity to say, 'we'll take it out and make something really different'. I always wanted to make a western and because of the rider I just thought it was a great opportunity, so the idea was to come up with a supernatural western, which I've never seen. I thought it was a cool idea. So it took me away from New York City, it took me away from the superhero vibe and just take it out into the deserts and take it to Texas. And we don't even name the city we never say Dallas or Houston or anything like that. We just say it's a big city in Texas and we make it a cowboy movie; in a way, we make it a real western it's like a Sergio Leone movie with a Hammer [horror] film, is what I keep thinking (laughs). If you slam them together you say, 'that's pretty cool I'd see that.' That's really different, and Nic (Cage) and I will always laugh about it cause we always do things at the end of the day and say, "What do we do different." What's really different about it even if it's not good. (Laughs) And we don't use it but at least we tried something, but that is the vibe of the movie. It does feel that way it has this kind of darkness but also this kind of really
it feels like a painting a lot of times. It looks like a comic book panel in the best sense of the word I think, its got that feel to it.
Q: How intense is the action in Ghost Rider?
JOHNSON: There is a lot of intensity and there is violence. It's not a splatter movie, and I'm not demeaning that cause I like them a lot, but it's not a movie where we're going to see how much gore we can put into the film. That's not what its about. The themes are inherently dark selling your soul to the devil, fighting demons and all this kind of stuff is inherently dark, but that's also balanced. There is some humor to the movie, there is a love story in the movie, and hopefully we'll have both.
