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.
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