It’s easy to predict one’s response to Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. You either accept the idea of a flaming-skull Nicolas Cage sucking the souls out of leather jacket-clad baddies, or you don’t. You relish Cage in full-on, over-the-top crazy mode – weird twitching and all – or you’re sick of his penchant for CGI-heavy junk. This isn’t rocket science. That being said, the Ghost Rider franchise, such as it is, has come a long way since the mediocre original flick, which opened in 2007, or approximately 100 Cage movies ago. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank), masters of speed-freak cinema, have taken over the directorial reigns and amped things up with fast motion, quick cuts, some artful comic-book stylistic digressions, slick pseudo-religious imagery and a much-needed helping of humor.

We’re going to get this out of the way and, like, totally quickly – I love Valley Girl. Unironically. I think it’s hilarious and weirdly romantic and that Nicolas Cage has never, ever looked better (and sexier). And also? The music is phenomenal (Cage’s Randy is really into the underground punk scene). And all that embarrassing praise and all those bizarre personal revelations aside, what made Valley Girl work is that it chronicled a specific lifestyle during the actual period in which it existed – that is, the “for sure, totally, tripendicular” slice of life California life during the 80s. A remake? Well, I worry that a remake is just going to poke fun at the time period, not look back on it with any sort of endearing nostalgia. MGM has been working to get a remake going for awhile now, and apparently Paramount is getting in on the action. According to Deadline Agoura Hills, the studios have now reportedly even picked a director for the film, which will be a musical version that will see its leads singing “New Wave tunes from bands like The Go Go’s and The Cars.” Clay Weiner will start his feature directing career with the film, apparently triumphing over “a number of well-established helmers who wanted the job.”

You’ll forgive me, dear reader, if I admit something to you now – I have never seen the first Ghost Rider. Trust me, this was not out of some misdirected hatred of Nicolas Cage-starring schlock (if Con Air is airing on television, I will drop everything to watch it – everything), it was just the way it shook out. And it looks like I might never have to see that film, as Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine‘s next installment of the film appears to have just one thing in common with that first crack on the hellion superhero – star Nicolas Cage. That’s really all you need. When FSR hit Comic-Con earlier this year, our own Jack Giroux learned a number of things about the new film, including first and foremost, that this is a standalone story. Consider Ghost Rider removed from my Amazon Wish List for this holiday season. The full trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has now careened its way online, and it doesn’t even remotely give a fuck about your stupid rules of the road. Hell, it doesn’t even care that much for the basic rules of mortality. This newest look at the film does not include Cage pissing fire (a shocking letdown), but it does include him vomiting it and whipping it. There are also a bunch of monks with tattoos and a lot of fighting and car-crashing and leather and ugly dudes, so yeah, it’s a Neveldine/Taylor film. Put on a helmet and

It turns out there’s a Nicolas Cage movie out there that is ready to be watched, but has been sitting on the shelf waiting for distribution. Why there haven’t been alarm bells sounding, protests happening in the streets, and 24/7 coverage from media outlets the entire time this atrocity was occurring is beyond me, but apparently we can all stop (not) panicking. Deadline Lomita is reporting that Cage’s next film, Seeking Justice (once known as The Hungry Rabbit Jumps), has been acquired by Anchor Bay and is set for a U.S. release on March 16th of next year. Let’s all take a moment to silently thank Anchor Bay. (Thanks, Anchor Bay.) News of a new Nic Cage movie is usually reason for celebration enough, no matter what the particulars of the project are, but this time there’s another big reason why I’ve now got Seeking Justice’s release date circled on my calendar with a big red heart. In this Roger Donaldson-directed thriller, Cage plays a mild-mannered teacher whose life changes when his wife is brutally assaulted. While that sounds awfully bleak, the good news here is that January Jones is playing the wife. That’s right, the man who’s never met a chance to overact he didn’t like and the stone-faced creep who’s never experienced a human emotion will be playing a married couple on the big screen. The results should be like a car crash being interrupted by a train wreck all while a woman breast feeds in public: I

The Avengers and The Walking Dead weren’t the only highlights from this past Saturday at NYCC. While some were walking the show floor and enjoying many of the smaller panels going on throughout the day, a majority had one goal… Get their ass to the IGN theater. And while a fair amount were merely their to squat a seat for the two big events that would go on later that evening, I was there to enjoy some really awesome panels, the first of which was for the new FOX show Terra Nova.

Some days you just have to take a step back, look around you, and – if no one is watching, in my case – cut loose. At least that’s what Paramount is hoping audiences will want to do this weekend, as their Footloose remake hits theaters far and wide. It’s going to have an uphill dance, though, as another revisit to an ’80s classic, this one a prequel, hits and those fighting robots are still out their lurking in the trash yards. Those robots won’t stomp the yard, though. That’ll be left to the teens from Bomont, Georgia. And maybe the creature in The Thing. You think it dances? You think anyone cares if it can dance while it’s taking over their body? Probably not. On with the Reject Report.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s sorry that it didn’t send flowers. How was it supposed to know that it was your birthday? It’s only a nightly movie news column.. We being this evening with an image of Joss Whedon directing the shit out of The Avengers alongside Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson. It’s part of a group of images that hit the web this week. In moving images news, reports are now saying that a trailer for The Avengers will drop on Tuesday, October 11. They just had to beat the new iPhone to the punch, didn’t they?!

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a movie news column set to the spectacle of a John Williams score. We begin tonight with the latest in scientific discovery. NASA and SETI have discovered a planet that has two stars. Their first thought? Name it “Tatooine.” We approve, but we can’t help but think this is a giant marketing campaign for the new Star Wars Blu-ray release. We’ll know when nude pics of the planet show up online.

Few upcoming productions amuse me quite like Scott Walker’s feature debut, Frozen Ground. Despite an impossibly generic title, the film is already packed with some major “wha-huh?” casting – namely in that it’s a film about a serial killer that is set to star Nicolas Cage and John Cusack, but with Cusack as the murderer. I’m so sold. Now High School Musical’s very own Vanessa Hudgens has joined the cast, set as a near-miss victim who escapes Cusack’s clutches, lives to tell the tale, get the bad guy, and so on and so forth. The film is based on the true story of Robert Hansen (Cusack), a “serial predator” who essentially launched his own version of The Most Dangerous Game in the Alaskan wilderness. A regular dude to everyone else, Hansen was a total maniac who reportedly abducted more than 24 women to serve as his own prey. Hansen’s style included hiring a prostitute and paying her, after which he would kidnap, torture, and rape her. Following that, he would tie up his prey, and fly them to his cabin in the Knik River Valley in his own airplane. After that, he’d release his victim, only to stalk her and kill her (Hansen was a very experienced hunter) with a gun and/or knife. A real gem that Robert Hansen. Hudgens will play a character based on teenage Cindy Paulson, who escaped from Hansen while she was actually hand-cuffed in his plane, just before he took off for the cabin. Cage

Wow. The trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance contains a lot of chain whip cracking, a lot of skulls on fire, and that wacky flaming vomit/urine combination that got Fure so hot under the collar. Considering the history of the movie and the weight of the first film’s failure that Vengeance carries around its neck, it’s probably a great idea to watch both trailers side by side to see what each production was going for. And whether they achieved it:

Over the course of his screenwriting career, Charlie Kaufman has developed a set of go-to moves. They are the tricks up his sleeve that allow him to craft narratives that throw the way we traditionally watch movies off kilter. One of the things he does is call identity into question. He casts John Malkovich as himself, or he casts Nicolas Cage as Charlie Kaufman, then he makes us question what aspects of those on screen characters accurately reflect the real person, and how much of them are solely invention; the crafted traits of a fictional character created by Charlie Kaufman.

For a film with Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman to get theatrically dumped, it’s a pretty clear sign that the final product didn’t turn out so hot. The dumpee is Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass. That’s right, a Joel Schmucher film with two recognizable stars is getting rushed in and out of the market. Apparently, it will be hitting DVD and VOD three weeks after its October 14th theatrical release. VideoEta already has the home video release date listed as November 1st. Millennium picked up the film about a month ago and even with the hit and miss star power involved, one would think it would get a bigger release than this.

Unlike Robert Fure, I’m excited for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Like Nathan Adams, I dislike — not hate — the first film and its Myster Science Theater-esque enjoyability. Understandably, there’s a lot skepticism towards this Ghost Rider installment. I mean, who wants to see a sequel to a film that very, very few people actually love? Not many. Lucky for them, this isn’t a sequel. The fact alone that this is a Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine “superhero” film already gives you a hint that this won’t be a run-of-the-mill action film. They’re out to deliver something dark, bizarre, and one of the few superhero films that doesn’t take itself too seriously. When directors has their lead pissing fire, the odds are something unique is getting made. Here a few things I learned about during the Comic-Con press conference that should make you excited about Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

The fact that anyone would try to make a sequel to the Marvel comic adapting, Nic Cage starring, demon on a flaming motorcycle movie Ghost Rider is a bit of a head scratcher. I mean, that was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Sure, the source material has some value. I can imagine a reimaging, a remake, or a reboot of the Ghost Rider character. But a sequel that brings Nic Cage back? No thanks. Or maybe it’s an idea so crazy it just might work. The first clue that this might be the case is that Spirit of Vengeance has ditched hack director Mark Steven Johnson in favor of a more interesting choice, Crank’s Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. The second is that some footage from the film was recently shown at Comic Con that is getting a lot of positive buzz on my Twitter feed. Riding high off of that wave of positivity, Spirit of Vengeance’s marketing blitz continues with the first still images from the movie being debuted in the new issue of Empire Magazine. Thanks to some scans that showed up on comicbookmovie.com, we can all take a look.

San Diego Comic-Con is a busy place. No one can cover everything, or even a significant portion of everything. Judgement calls must be made, like sleeping through panels or buying cool toys instead of waiting in line at Hall H. Or you know, just covering A instead of B. I found myself in that situation when it came time for the Sony panel that featured a lot of cool things, including The Amazing Spider-Man and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Instead of suffering though the line at Hall H, which I gladly would have done, I caught up with Spartacus and then went off to see Jason Momoa, the next Conan. Luckily I was able to read all about the Sony panel on Twitter and, well… Shit.

Quirky writer Charlie Kaufman just may be the closest thing that modern Hollywood has to a mad genius. He captivated and delighted audiences and critics alike with his screenplays for Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and then he confused audiences and critics alike with his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. Whatever he does is at least always interesting, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he serves up his second time behind the camera.

That Thing You Do! is the kind of movie only a man with a particular amount of clout can get made. An off-beat comedy about a fake rock band from the ’60s starring a bunch of unknowns and unfamiliar songs to boot? Maybe if it was a comic book first. But thank the powers that be for Tom Hanks and his odd sensibilities. He may be a two-time Oscar winner and an impassioned producer of WWII serialized dramas, but when it came to his directorial debut, the end product was something closer to his Bosom Buddies/The Man with One Red Shoe days. When That Thing You Do! hit theaters it bombed, barely making back its budget and putting Hanks’s directing career in question. Not even Tom Freakin’ Hanks could get his passion project to play with audiences. That very well could have been the end of the actor behind the camera. But lo and behold, a decade and a half later, Hanks returns this weekend with another oddball flick, Larry Crowne. Whether the new comedy (sporting plenty of familiar faces) can counter-program Transformers 3 and survive the competitive summer isn’t the point — we should be happy enough he made something. With Larry Crowne, Hanks has succeeded in doing what so few of his actor-turned-director friends have managed: to make a second movie. Here are a few thespians who took the plunge into filmmaking, only to return to their day jobs after one outing.

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema: we have come here to chew bubblegum and worship bad movies…and we’re all out of bubblegum. Pursuant to our mission statement, hastily written in soy sauce on the wrapper of a Zagnut bar, every week we will tempt your cerebral taste buds with all the most decadent, delicious treats it doesn’t want to admit it craves. We will slice, dice, chop, and screw the movie; basting it in its own faults along the way. But then it will lovingly bake in our hearts at 98.6° for 3-5 paragraphs until it becomes golden brown with our misguided affection. We will then transform metaphor into substance by offering an actual snack food item paired with the film in order that no part of your insides remain unaffected by this odious column. If losers are always whining about their best, we achieve the complete opposite effect by lauding the worst with a barbaric yawp. Today’s Blue Plate Special: The Rock

This week, the Nicolas Cage 3D grindhouse flick Drive Angry hits video store shelves. And while it’s not be a good idea to drink and drive, it can be quite fun to drink while watching Drive Angry. In the tradition of Planet Terror, Death Proof and Machete, Drive Angry features plenty of violence, fast cars and boobs. Surely, it will be on the short list come Oscar season next year. Get a jump on your awards ballot by checking this movie out, knowing it will just get better the more you play this game.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a movie news column that brings down the Hammer of Thor upon you with a spectacle of lightning, news and think pieces from around the web. And not just once in a while, but every single night (except for Saturdays). Time to kick your week off right with news, news and Doctor Who… There is something curious about the timing of the first round of Thor reviews to hit the web. Knowing Paramount, their publicity team was very calculated in lifting the embargo on a select number of reviewers. They are good at massaging the buzz like that. That said, I trust Drew McWeeney at HitFix, and he seems rather positive on the film. That’s promising. There are also some balanced takes found via this Cinema Blend round-up, as well as an equally impressive and balanced reaction from Peter Sciretta at /Film. Take it one of two ways: the expectations bar is being set low for a big surprise, or it’s being set low to lessen the blow of the film being a lame duck. It could still go either way. We’ll let you know for sure when we review it.