Cage Back on the Flaming Hog?

It’s starting to look like “Ghost Rider 2,” with Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes returning to their respective roles as daredevil cyclist Johnny Blaze and Roxanne Simpson may be gearing up for production sometime in 2009. At this time it isn’t known if Peter Fonda will be called upon to return as the infamous Mephistopheles or if writer-director Mark Steven Johnson will be attached.

Cage is said to be excited about the prospect of playing Blaze again. An avid comics enthusiast himself, “Ghost Rider” is considered one of his favorite comicbook characters.

It will be interesting to see how Cage will fit this into his already very busy shooting schedule. He has just wrapped on the SF thriller “Knowing,” and is in post-production for the animated fantasy film “G-Force.” Between now and the end of 2010 Cage will be tied-down to seven other film productions including voice work for the animated SF film “Astro Boy,” a mystery titled “The Ghost,” and a film based on the highly successful “Scared Straight” crime prevention program directed by the legendary John Carpenter. Also on tap for Cage are four more dramas.

Special visual effects filming for “Ghost Rider 2” could get underway without Cage. The first film required a great deal of tweaking in the last weeks before it was released. Much was learned from the process that should save the production crew a lot of grief for this (reliable) rumored second endeavor.