Ghost Rider 2 blazing up in 2012

Nicolas Cage’s hot-headed sequel to comic book adap Ghost Rider has been given a cinema release date of 17 February 2012.

For fans of the first movie, that date comes exactly five years and one day after Ghost Rider hit screens in the US (16 February 2007).

This new adventure for the flame-skulled superhero is being scribbled by Crank creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who are said to be rebooting the franchise ( Hulk -style) with a massive series re-think.

So Eva Mendes as Roxanne Simpson is out, as is original director Mark Steven Johnson. It is thought that the sequel will be set in Europe, and will – naturally – be in 3D.

Producer Mike De Luca discussed the movie with Collider back in January, and confirmed they were “looking at a hard PG-13. You know, like the kind of PG-13 that Lord Of The Rings and Dark Knight was. Like where you’re really right up against it”.

He also sounded positive about the reboot idea, comparing it to the way comic books often reboot their concepts. “Even with the Ghost Rider comic there were so many iterations,” he says. “It’s one of those characters that’s almost like a blank slate. Even the rules of it and his powers.

“You know, there’s just little differences as each artist and writer tackled the character that kind of frees us to be different with this next movie, but it is pushing the reset button, and I think putting the character in kind of an appropriate darker context.”