Mark Steven Johnson Talks 'Ghost Rider' Sequel, Other Plans

Before I begin, let me just admit I am not a fan of Mark Steven Johnson's directing work nor am I a fan of his most recent effort, Ghost Rider. His other films, the equally tepid Daredevil and the so-so Simon Birch did demonstrate a rather meager level of competence, but left me, well, pretty unsatisfied. Given all of that, it was with a great deal of trepidation that I read a recent interview with Johnson over at IGN wherein he discusses, among other things, the development of a sequel to Ghost Rider and that he might, unfortunately, have something to do with it.

In the interview, given during promotion of the upcoming DVD release of Ghost Rider, Johnson discuss many things including another Ghost Rider film, his involvement in it, what villains he would like to see in the sequel and what else he would like to be directing if he doesn't end up doing a sequel. "We're talking about it, yeah, talking about it," says Johnson of Ghost Rider 2. "I don't know what I'm going to do, to be honest. After Daredevil and this ... it takes so long, these movies. I really want something different, and the pressure of the fan community is always so great."

Given the constraints on his time and the fan community's "pressures," what would Johnson perhaps prefer to do next instead of a Ghost Rider sequel? "I would like to do something more comedy-based," he says, "go back to my roots like the Grumpy Old Men movies and do something with effects. I love effects; I love working with them. So I don't know about for myself, if that's in the cards for me." So, he wants to go back to comedies and not make any more comic book movies because they take too long and the fans expect too much? Well, given what he's done with Daredevil and Ghost Rider, I think never doing another comic book movie ever again is a fine career choice. I wish him luck.