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Want To Know The Truth Behind Last Week

Published at:  Oct 14, 2002 9:36:35 AM CDT

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.



I may have been irritated about the confusion over last week’s GHOST RIDER script review, but I’m pleased that we’ve not finally had it sorted out for us. Mainly because I get to give you the full story now so we can see how the confusion (and that’s what it appears to be, more than anything) first got started...



Moriarty

I'm writing, under advisement from my agent, to put a cap on all this 'Ghost Rider' screenplay nonsense for you. A friend sent me a link in my email saying that I had to read the article to believe it.

I am the author of the screenplay in question that was reviewed on your site, although the script I have is called 'Hellfire' and is no longer about Ghost Rider or his supporting characters. But it DID start out as that in a way.

Let me explain:

When the Marvel Knights imprint started at Marvel Comics all those years back, I made a pitch to Joe Quesada for a new Ghost Rider mini-series that would completely up-turn the characters and put them in a Vertigo-like environment. My proposal was to have six issues with six different characters becoming Ghost Rider as part of a plan by Blackheart to take over Heaven. Blaze and Dan Ketch's ex, Stacy Dolan, were to join with Badalino to try and stop the whole thing. And in the comic pitch, Dan Ketch himself was to be one of the catatonic patients. The idea was to make the series very cinematic and noir-ish and make it less about Ghost Rider and more about Blaze and the other supporting characters. After the six issues, there would be a new Ghost Rider. If fans hated it, it was only a mini-series. If fans responded to it, then I had a million other ideas for an ongoing series.

Joe, and a few other high profile comic pros, liked the idea, but he said he had no control over the character and then he referred me to the editor who was handling the character at the time. I don't know what happened to the proposal that Joe personally gave to the editor for me, but the editor left Marvel a few months later and I never heard anything. I re-pitched the idea to Joe about six months later and he said, understandably, that they had picked up the character and decided to go with another writer's (Devin Grayson) proposal. Devin was/is a popular writer, so I can understand that, although I hated the series that was put out myself (jealousy? maybe).

Anyway, at the time, I was working on a number of spec screenplays and Joe said I'd have a better shot at getting it made into a movie, that there'd be a lot more money for me if it sold and that I should just take the idea and run with it.

So I did.

Not knowing where to start turning it into a feature film, I just wrote the very rough First Draft AS a Ghost Rider feature film. It was easier for me to write all those characters and work out how the story unfolded and THEN rewrite it with my own characters later. I passed that first draft around to a few people/fans on the old Event Comics boards and a few other movie sites and didn't ever think about that draft again. People seemed to like it, so I knew at least the story had a strong enough premise to carry a film.

I changed the name to 'Hellfire' and rewrote it with my own characters, then sent it out to a heap of agencies. I got a positive response from Paradigm and Gersh and a few smaller agencies, but the subject matter was deemed too excessive post-Sept 11. So, at the moment, I'm working on a few comedy specs and such and 'Hellfire' is sitting on the shelf gathering dust.

'Hellfire' was my first real shot at a Hollywood script and I think it works in it's ways. I'm quite flattered that the reviewer responded well to what I think is a very cobbled-together first draft. I'd be interested to learn your source as I only passed out the screenplay to a select few people and would like to know how it got around like it did.

The readers who respond in your forums are quite right though: it would be a lousy Ghost Rider feature film. It was never intended as one. It was a 're-imagining' of the Ghost Rider concept for the comic books, not a re-imagining of the concept for film. The first draft was just a writing tool to get me off and running. I still think it would make a great relaunch of the comic book which, regrettably, has died off from lack of interest. I don't know what or if anything will happen with it because my attention is on other projects right now.

I hope this has put to rest any trouble that may have been stirred up and I've included my cell number in case you wanna check on me personally. If you want to print this letter on the site to explain what happened, you have my permission to.

Sorry if it created any trouble or made you feel a little less trusting of your contributors, but the guy who reviewed it was HALF right and probably acting with less knowledge of the script than he should have before sending
that email.

Thanks for your time

Petar Bridges

And thank you for writing and sorting it out for us, Petar. I appreciate it, and I hope you have nothing but luck with the stuff you’re working on.



"Moriarty" out.








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    Readers Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 9:45:52 AM CDT

    no subject

    by kitachi

    WHAT A NICE FELLA

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 10:08:20 AM CDT

    You Need To Learn To Read...

    by therealmoriarty

    Ingagi38... what part of "police say that AICN and Harry Knowles aren't implicated in any way" did you not understand? If you're going to post the link, at least try and grasp what it says.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 11:11:48 AM CDT

    This guy is right...this would have made a lousy Ghost Rider mov

    by sod off baldric

    But if published as a comic it would have definitely kicked the ass of that Devin Grayson mini-series. Wow, did that suck a fart. Devin, honey...just 'cause you're unbearably hot doesn't mean you're talented. Hey Petar; you're idea sounds interesting. What are the odds of me getting a copy of that script?

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 11:30:09 AM CDT

    Well, Honesty IS The Best...Wawazat?

    by hipcheck13

    Nice to know SOME Hollywood types actually have souls. This guy's not lacking for original ideas, that's for sure, and reading that even HE agreed that this version of a Ghost Rider flick would suck - well, you won't last long in Hollywood, son. You've got WAY too much integrity and honesty. Anyway, I'd love to have this guy write the Ghost Rider script, but stick to the original mythology/backstory (Blaze, stunt rider in the circus, sells his soul to the devil, etc.).

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 11:31:33 AM CDT

    Mori, forget that douchenozzle Ingagi38...what I want is the WAT

    by funnyboy

    I hate to be rude, but gimme gimme gimme! I'm salivating thinking about it!

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 11:59:24 AM CDT

    Cool. Good luck.

    by kong33

    Hope you make it

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 12:48:00 PM CDT

    Ya Can't Review A WATCHMEN Script Because I'm Shooting I

    by buzz maverik

    As you all know, I attached myself as director to THE WATCHMEN over two years ago right in these very talkbacks. I'm shooting sans screenplay. I have an outline that I wrote on the back of some Tommy's napkins and the actors will improvise their dialogue or say what I order them to say. I'm using the Coppola method. And that's the real Coppola, the insane one, not his kids. Kevin Kline will be playing The Nite Owl, John Malkovitch: Rorshach, Rene Russo: the Silk Spectre, Val Kilmer: Dr. Manhattan, John Corbett: Ozymandius, and Nick Nolte (who doesn't even neeed to give up drugs to work for me) in an extended cameo as The Comedian. So if you know any of these actors and somebody at a studio, tell 'em I'm ready to go. If I need to do rewrites, I'll go back to Tommy's.

    Reply to Talkback

  • Oct 14, 2002 12:58:49 PM CDT

    Oh, get off the friggin' high horse

    by no. 41

    So if someone offered to show you a Star Wars movie two months before it was released, you'd walk away saying "thanks but no thanks." Right. I don't really know why Lucasfilm is that upset, Harry's review created a lot of positive buzz that helped their good-but-could-have-been-so-so-so-much-better product. It needed the buzz after the poisonous word-of-mouth floating around post-TPM. Although I guess they should be worried from a precedent standpoint, what if EpIII leaks and Harry or whoever hates it?

    Reply to Talkback

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