http://ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=2148
The GHOST RIDER director/writer talks about his upcoming HBO series, the possibility of a sequel to the Spirit of Vengeance and more. ________________________________________ By PETER BROWN, Associate Editor Published 6/10/2007 Growing up reading just about any Marvel comic book he could get his hands on, Mark Steven Johnson has always been closely tied to the comic world. So it isn't surprising that two of the films he has directed and wrote the screenplays for, DAREDEVIL and GHOST RIDER, happen to be based on classic comic book characters with long histories. With GHOST RIDER wrapped up and now out on DVD with a very good two- disc extended cut edition, director and writer Johnson has turned his attention to another comic book-based project but this time a television series by the name of PREACHER that is scheduled to appear at some point in the near future on HBO. Johnson gave iF Magazine a little insight into PREACHER as well as the possibility of a GHOST RIDER sequel. iF: I know you have been working on PREACHER for HBO and that you said before it is going to be faithful to comic. Can you give us an update on the status of the series? MARK STEVEN JOHNSON: Things are moving ahead and great. I actually already wrote the pilot and [HBO] wanted to me write a bible on how the first season would go and I did that. There was a big shake-up at HBO recently and we weren't sure if we were still on the bill, but things are still looking really good. It has been a dream of mine to bring this comic to television and make the series exactly faithful to the fans of the comics who loyally follow the book. iF: So will be seeing the same stories from the comic book in the series? MSJ: Well there would be nothing new to add if we did that so [PREACHER creator] Garth [Ennis] and I have been creating new stories for the series. I love the book so much and I was telling Garth that he has to make the stories we are coming up with as comics because I want to see them. iF: Obviously HBO has some openings with DEADWOOD, ROME and CARNIVALE off the schedule and it seems like a natural fit with those. MSJ: Yes. They talked about making it into a movie originally and I didn't want that to happen because it had to be a series. It wouldn't work as a one-shot movie. Obviously with the violence and extreme imagery of the comic and what we will be bringing to the series it had to be HBO. iF: Can you give me any idea into the casting for PREACHER? I know some fans think BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's Katee Sackhoff would be a great Tulip. MSJ: But she's on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA iF: Ah but it is ending! MSJ: Oh yeah, she's really great and I love her character, but we have really talked about unknowns and not anyone that has baggage or any movies or whatnot and but with maybe some cameos of people who really love the series coming in and making an appearance. We want three real people that the audience can connect with that doesn't have any prior baggage to get hooked to. One of the things that I love about the cast of LOST is that virtually all of them are unknowns and because no one had seen them before, there wasn't a typecast baggage to go along with them. I am hoping to do the same thing with PREACHER. iF: Can us give me an update on GHOST RIDER 2? MSJ: They are talking about it and the first film did very well for them, but you know I have been doing my own stuff and not writing anything at the moment. Given how well it did, I would imagine down the line that Sony will want to revisit a sequel and I'll be happy to look at it then. iF: Are the stars signed up for a sequel? MSJ: Too early and I think they are on board because we had such a great time doing the first film. But if we do another one I would want to do it bigger, larger, better than the original. It cost so much to do the GHOST RIDER and it looks great and it is cool, but you still have to pay for him every time you see him and at $50,000 a pop that took away from some of the fights we could do. If we did a sequel, from the very beginning we would want to hit it hard, hit it fast. Since we don't have to research how we would build the character and spend money on it that will definitely help. iF: What about possible villains in the sequel? Maybe Zodiac or Scarecrow? MSJ: I love Scarecrow and in fact wanted to have him in the original as the main villain, but at the time he was also in BATMAN BEGINS and so we didn't really want to use him. But the fact that the Marvel character is so much different than the DC character and so much more eerie and creepy, we might re-visit him as a possible villain. iF: I read some where that you had the rights to the script for DAREDEVIL 2? Is that accurate and will we ever see a sequel? MSJ: I don't think so and unfortunately when that movie was made, it made a lot of money for Fox but they made the ELECTRA [spin-off] and they thought ELECTRA was DAREDEVIL 2 and then they would bring the two characters back for a third movie. Because ELECTRA tanked it cooled everything off for it. I am hoping Marvel gets the rights back to the franchise and maybe after that I can do something of a sequel, but we won't see it until then.
