Ghost Rider is tracking huge, and so it looks like Sony has already started working on another one. Seems a little premature, since the movie hasn’t opened yet, doesn’t it? Tracking numbers aren’t exactly a guarantee of success, but according to MovieWeb Ghost Rider 2 is coming.
The news comes from Marvel head and Ghost Rider producer Avi Arad who says they are working on developing a sequel. Nic Cage is set to return as a guy who catches fire and fights evil from the back of a bitchin motorcycle at night.
I suppose there’s still room for them to back out if the first one fails when it opens this Friday. Personally, I’m rooting for the thing to be a box office bomb. Earlier this week the New York post broke the story that Sony is trying to hide the movie from the press to keep them from reviewing it, and now it seems that Sony has resorted to punishing journalists for reporting the story.
According to the guys over at CanMag, they have been banned from covering Ghost Rider simply for reporting on the no screening story broken by the New York Post. A story which was widely reported just about everywhere, including here. Why CanMag should be singled out for punishment when no one else is, is unknown; but what I do know is it’s a legitimate story and if what Can Mag says is true, Sony has no damn business trying to manipulate reporters to get the story they want put in the headlines. Or at the very least they could try punishing the right target. Go after the New York Post, not people who linked to their story. Where’s the sense in that?
Can Mag says Sony claims it’s all because the story is incorrect, but from what I can tell it isn’t. The movie’s director Mark Steve Johnson posted on the message boards over at Superherohype claiming that it was all a lie and that the movie was being screened… but it was only screened for Superherohype, a website predisposed to giving the thing a positive review even if the movie was total dung. Later it was screened for press covering the Ghost Rider junket, but junket journalists more often than not don’t review movies. They are their for celebrity interviews. Thursday at 7:30PM the night before the movie opens is the only real screening being made available to the reviewing press. Not that it matters, since a screening that late makes it impossible for newspapers to get a review out before the film’s release, thus achieving Sony’s goal of getting the movie into theaters before bad reviews can touch it.
What all of this boils down to is bad behavior on the part of Sony. The movie sucks, and they’re not only trying to hide the movie but they’re also trying to hide the fact that they’re hiding it by using intimidation, technicalities, and flat out falsification. At this point I don’t care if Ghost Rider is good or not, I’m hoping for it to fail. Sony needs a kick in the ass.
Don’t worry folks, I’m not reviewing it. Not that it would matter. I'm usually pretty good at disconnecting myself in these situtations. We’re going to be fair, but we won’t be happy about having to do it. Damn our standards.
