Nicolas Cage talks Ghost Rider

Here are a few clips from the interview:

What do you think about the trends of comic book movies?

Well, I've always thought that the comic book film would be wonderfully entertaining for audiences, because it taps into the fantasy world more than just straight up violence. And I had no doubt when the first Batman came out, because of the title and the character, that was going to be a sensational-- a very exciting movie to watch, combined with the technology that we have today, that you can take these fantasies that many of us grew up on and really bring them to the big screen. You have marvelous entertainment. Comic books to me are modern mythology, and so it taps into all sorts of psychological and soulful levels for audiences in a positive way, in a fantasy element as opposed to blood and guts, gore fests.

Ghost Rider can't exist without violence, so where do you see that element in the film?

Well, he's the devil's bounty hunter. One of his rules is that he will never take a human being's life. But he will go after demons, other demons, and this movie's loaded with what they call The Hidden, which are these elemental demons that Mephistopheles, or Black Heart, Mephistopheles' son, is using, and so the Ghost Rider goes into battle with them more than the people.

How does he battle them?

He has these wonderful abilities, like hellfire and the chain that he can use and swing, and then he has the penance stare, where you can look at someone and make them review every bad, horrible thing they've ever done to anybody and then feel it and feel the pain of all their mistakes and sins and basically reduce you to a human jellyfish.

How is it riding the Hell Cycle?

I only rode the chopper, Grace. And also the stunt cycle. It's a Buell. They're both really terrific. The Hell Cycle, only the Ghost Rider rides that. That's the other thing. His bike transforms too, and turns into a demon hell cycle. But yeah, that's not much of a bike to really ride. You have to really know what you're doing on that. I want to add, though, there is a lot of humor in the movie. We've managed to really put a great deal of humor. Just character building humor. There's the relationship between Johnny Blaze and his best friend, Mack, is an interesting dynamic. Just humor about dealing with the irony of his situation.

You can read the complete interview here. Ghost Rider is scheduled to hit cinemas August 4th, 2006.