Director Brian Taylor Regrets Not Pushing for R-Rated Version of 'Ghost Rider'
"Ghost Rider" director Brian Taylor would love to make an R-rated "Ghost Rider" series. The director has revealed that one of his biggest regrets in his career was not pushing for an R-rating when he directed the 2011 sequel "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" with collaborator Mark Neveldine.
In an interview with Flickering Myth, Taylor revealed that the original script for "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" was written by David Goyer, and it was completed almost a decade before the first "Ghost Rider" film. Describing the script as "hardcore" and "awesome," he said the film could have been a classic had its script not been rewritten multiple times.
"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 'Ghost Rider' film, was a hardcore, rated-R horror script and it was awesome," he said.
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Taylor went on to reveal that in between the first "Ghost Rider" film and its sequel, the script had been rewritten about 14 to 16 times to the point where it turned out to be a "mess." "It was also just a little too clean and a little too restrained. If we had the opportunity to do the original, rated-R Goyer script, I think that movie would've been a classic," he added.
The director also said that the version that the audience should have seen at the time would have been far better than the "vanilla version" of Ghost Rider currently shown in ABC's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Taylor said the character's current version on the TV series is G-rated and does not look interesting to him at all.
For now, it remains uncertain if the Ghost Rider will show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The last "Ghost Rider" film, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," starred Nicolas Cage and hit theaters in 2012.
