SDCC 2011: ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’ Panel Recap

If you were able to make it into Hall H today, you got a chance to see a preview of the new “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” movie and probably one of the more entertaining panels at Comic-Con. The panel included directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor along with the talents that included Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba, Johnny Whitworth and James Remar.

The panel began with a featurette showcasing the insane antics and directing styles of Neveldine and Taylor. I don’t want to call it Jackass-ery, but it’s what it resembles.

“Basically our style is to bully, unnerve, and instill fear in our performers.”

We also caught some pre-production footage with a title card saying “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Fucking Your Shit Up in 3D February 2012.”

From what was shown, Ghost Rider is nothing like the first film. In fact, I’d say it’s almost an entire new film or a reboot similar to “The Punisher.” In “Spirit of Vengeance,” Ghost Rider is more extreme and bad ass. I don’t want to say this is the Ghost Rider we’ve been waiting for or that it’s comic accurate (because it’s not) but it’s a whole new Spirit of Vengeance (Hollywoodlized).

The footage hectic with a lot of fast cuts. We see some guy firing rounds into Ghost Rider who swallows them and spits them out. The trailer ends with a boy asking Ghost Rider if he can pee fire, and sure enough he can….

During the discussion, Cage says that he’s happy to return to the sequel, because he felt he had more to say about the character. Meanwhile, Taylor describes the new Ghost Rider as a horror character rather than a superhero. He mentioned Ghost Rider’s superpowers a bit (sucks out your soul) but doesn’t elaborate on whether we’ll get to see that in the new film. In the new film Ghost Rider is also to turn things into his Hell-Cycle by touch. Overall he will be more reckless and brutal.

“Anything that the Ghost Rider rides turns into a hell version of that thing,” says Taylor.

At the end of the panel, Elba (who plays a warrior biker monk) was asked if there were any other superheroes he’d like to play or was pursuing, and he casually in a deep voice said, “Luke Cage.”

“Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance” opens February 17, 2010.