INTERVIEWS: Ghost Rider
Here are my interviews with Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and director Mark Steven Johnson from the Ghost Rider junket.
www.joblo.com/interview-cagemendes
Nicolas Cage: Anybody here from Entertainment Weekly? Because I hate that magazine. [Laughter]
What did Entertainment Weekly do to you?
Cage: Entertainment Weekly hasn't done anything to me. Somebody asked me a question about, "Do you think comic book movies get a bad rap?" And someone mentioned to me that there was a blurb in Entertainment Weekly, very condescendingly, "We get a kick out of watching Academy Award winners being in movies they have no business being seen in." And I thought, "Well, that's really shallow thinking, because they can't get outside their own box."
They don't understand the concept of what I would say is art. You have different styles and you can choose to be photo realistic like World Trade Center , or you can be pop art illustrative. Why limit yourself to one style of acting? And especially when you look at Ghost Rider you see a comic book story structure that digs a little deeper. It doesn't take itself too seriously, of course, it's funny, but it's coming from classic themes like Faust with Gerta or Thomas Mann or then Beauty and the Beast and it's fascinating to take those story structures and reintroduce people to it in a pop art, contemporary manner.
In a comic book especially, which is fun and reaches a lot of people. Entertainment Weekly is the kind of magazine that is very condescending and they think in a very narrow box and they always have. So that's why I would recommend that if you really want to really get your information and know what movies to go see, I wouldn't resort to that particular publication, because they are pretty shallow.
Read the rest of the interview by clicking the link below...
www.joblo.com/interview-cagemendes
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www.joblo.com/interview-mark-steven-johnson
The trailer says, "He made a deal to save somebody he loved." And it looks like they're talking about Eva Mendes even though it's not her. Why not just say, "He made a deal to save his father?"
Avi Arad: I think that those who are from the uber-geek universe will immediately know that he did it to save his dad. When we make movies like this the idea is to get more people initiated. If you remember when this Marvel journey started, there were only three of us watching these movies. So in order to get to where we are today, at least from a marketing and advertising standpoint, we want to open it. And of course, Roxanne is part of his love and part of his aspirations and part of his pain, so it all makes sense.
So it's intentionally vague?
Mark Steven Johnson: Yeah.
Gary Foster: Yes.
Arad : Whenever it's vague, it's intentional. [Laughter]
As far as the evolution of comic book movies, what's gotten better?
Johnson: The CGI. You know, its one of those things where there's so much negativity on the internet, and that's for any filmmaker or any musician or any artist at all... But the great thing is that, for me, is that I go onto a site like Superhero Hype or some of the comic sites and you read about what people say and sometimes they're right. It's like a free test screening in a way. So we put up the skull a year and half a year ago at the earliest stage, and everybody was like, "Skull looks fake. It looks terrible." You know, that’s our lead character. If he doesn’t look good, you're sunk, from the very beginning. Because at least you gotta get that right. So that was the hardest thing, was getting that skull and that CG fire to look right, and the time really helped.
Read the rest of the interview by clicking the link below...
www.joblo.com/interview-mark-steven-johnson
Nicolas Cage: Anybody here from Entertainment Weekly? Because I hate that magazine. [Laughter]
What did Entertainment Weekly do to you?
Cage: Entertainment Weekly hasn't done anything to me. Somebody asked me a question about, "Do you think comic book movies get a bad rap?" And someone mentioned to me that there was a blurb in Entertainment Weekly, very condescendingly, "We get a kick out of watching Academy Award winners being in movies they have no business being seen in." And I thought, "Well, that's really shallow thinking, because they can't get outside their own box."
They don't understand the concept of what I would say is art. You have different styles and you can choose to be photo realistic like World Trade Center , or you can be pop art illustrative. Why limit yourself to one style of acting? And especially when you look at Ghost Rider you see a comic book story structure that digs a little deeper. It doesn't take itself too seriously, of course, it's funny, but it's coming from classic themes like Faust with Gerta or Thomas Mann or then Beauty and the Beast and it's fascinating to take those story structures and reintroduce people to it in a pop art, contemporary manner.
In a comic book especially, which is fun and reaches a lot of people. Entertainment Weekly is the kind of magazine that is very condescending and they think in a very narrow box and they always have. So that's why I would recommend that if you really want to really get your information and know what movies to go see, I wouldn't resort to that particular publication, because they are pretty shallow.
www.joblo.com/interview-cagemendes
The trailer says, "He made a deal to save somebody he loved." And it looks like they're talking about Eva Mendes even though it's not her. Why not just say, "He made a deal to save his father?"
Avi Arad: I think that those who are from the uber-geek universe will immediately know that he did it to save his dad. When we make movies like this the idea is to get more people initiated. If you remember when this Marvel journey started, there were only three of us watching these movies. So in order to get to where we are today, at least from a marketing and advertising standpoint, we want to open it. And of course, Roxanne is part of his love and part of his aspirations and part of his pain, so it all makes sense.
So it's intentionally vague?
Mark Steven Johnson: Yeah.
Gary Foster: Yes.
Arad : Whenever it's vague, it's intentional. [Laughter]
As far as the evolution of comic book movies, what's gotten better?
Johnson: The CGI. You know, its one of those things where there's so much negativity on the internet, and that's for any filmmaker or any musician or any artist at all... But the great thing is that, for me, is that I go onto a site like Superhero Hype or some of the comic sites and you read about what people say and sometimes they're right. It's like a free test screening in a way. So we put up the skull a year and half a year ago at the earliest stage, and everybody was like, "Skull looks fake. It looks terrible." You know, that’s our lead character. If he doesn’t look good, you're sunk, from the very beginning. Because at least you gotta get that right. So that was the hardest thing, was getting that skull and that CG fire to look right, and the time really helped.
www.joblo.com/interview-mark-steven-johnson
Labels: Interviews
