Brian Taylor, the director of ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” isn’t a fan of Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s take on the character. While not exactly the same Ghost Rider, it might be easy for someone to compare the two. One was a well-developed character who ended up as the Spirit of Vengeance to have another chance at life that we saw evolve as a person into a hero while the other starred Nicolas Cage and was directed by this guy. The new version holds “no interest” for Taylor who claims that the original R-Rated script by David S. Goyer was “awesome” and sadly never got to see the light of day.
When talking about this script, he states:
“I think that Ghost Rider should be a rated-R, horror character. The original script that David Goyer wrote for that movie, which was actually written almost a decade before the first Ghost Rider film, was a hardcore, rated-R horror script and it was awesome.
Then, in the time between that and the second movie, the script had been rewritten literally 14 times or 16 times or something like that to the point where it was kind of a mess. It was also just a little too clean and a little too restrained.
If we had had the opportunity to do the original, rated-R Goyer script, I think that movie would’ve been a classic. I think the cast was really good and I think we got a lot of things right. I think the design of the character was fantastic. The way we did Ghost Rider as a tar-bubbling, black, charred creature was absolutely the right take on Ghost Rider.”
Sadly, Taylor doesn’t clarify what was changed in the multitude of re-writes that diluted the movie and why he even agreed to stay on if it had gone to hell because of them. While he isn’t interested in the take that we were recently given, it is clear he wasn’t overly impressed with what he ended up releasing either:
“They’ve brought that character back on TV now, and he looks like the clean, vanilla, G-rated character again. That version really has no interest for me, but I do think a scary, rated-R, horror superhero movie is an awesome thing that should be done and I wish that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance had been it.”
Personally, I’ll still take the ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ version any day of the week as I feel they were able to do a better job with him. Could they have gone a bit darker? Absolutely. However, part of the struggle here was showing Robbie Reyes trying to stay in control and not let the Spirit loose upon the world.
The scenes where he did give in to vengeance were brutal.
Do you agree that the Marvel’s ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ take on Ghost Rider was too “vanilla”? Which of the two version did you prefer and why? Share your thoughts below True Believers!
Source: Flickering Myth
