Marvel has a long list of comic-to-film projects that didn’t pan out so well. Ghost Rider is one of them. That may be the most diplomatic way I’ve ever put that. Ordinarily anything having to do with Ghost Rider has elicited a rage in me that leaves me angry. . . Hulk angry. So why am I so calm this time?

Well, as we’ve already covered here at The Flickcast, Ghost Rider is getting a sequel which could have been as craptastic as the first film. However, the script for the new movie is from one of my favorite writers David Goyer (Batman Begins, FlashForward).  Recently, MTV caught up with Goyer and asked him about the Ghost Rider sequel:

“It’s not exactly a reboot,” said Goyer, “I hate to say it’s more realistic, because he’s got a flaming skull for a head, but it’s a bit more stripped down and darker. It’s definitely changing tone. What ‘Casino Royale’ was to the Bond movies, hopefully this will be to ‘Ghost Rider.’”

I’m not sure Casino Royale is the best comparison to make, but I understand what Goyer is trying to say. Dropping all the baggage like Mephistopheles and his minions and focus on Johnny Blaze and his curse.  That’s definitely the way to go as there was way to much attention paid to peripheral nonsense in the first movie.

There was one other thing I found interesting about the interview.  Goyer states Ghost Rider 2 isn’t really a reboot but then says: “You don’t have to have seen the first film. It doesn’t contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we’re pretending that our audience hasn’t seen the first film.”

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With the Marvel/Disney deal looming, the race is on for studios to secure properties. Variety is reporting that Columbia Pictures is working on a sequel to Ghost Rider, with David Goyer reportedly in talks to create the story, as well as supervise additional writers for the film. Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise his starring role as Johnny Blaze.

The resurrection of Ghost Rider as a franchise comes in the middle of negotiations with other Marvel characters at Sony, Fox, Universal and Paramount. Studios must move on these properties now if they want to retain the rights to their Marvel superheroes.  If the properties languish, Marvel Entertainment can reclaim the rights to those characters. This is exactly what happened with the Dr. Strange, Black Panther and Iron Man properties. Iron Man languished in development hell at New Line before Marvel turned the property into a self-financed blockbuster last year. And we all know how well that went.

Although Goyer stated through a spokesman, that he has not officially signed on to a second Ghost Rider, plans are already under way to base the sequel on a script Goyer penned years ago. Goyer’s, superhero work includes successful screen transfers of DC’s Batman Begins and Marvel’s Blade franchise.

Columbia isn’t the only one getting in on the properties action. Fox plans to reboot Fantastic Four with Green Lantern scribe Michael Green; develop a Wolverine sequel and other X-Men spinoffs; a Silver Surfer film; and a revamped version of Daredevil.

Sony recently tapped James Vanderbilt to pen the fifth and sixth installments of the Spider-Man series, and Universal is continuing work on Sub-Mariner. Paramount will continue to be the distributor for Iron Man 2 and are also expected to distribute the upcoming Thor and Captain America flicks.

Even with the just announced sale of Marvel to Disney, its still business as usual at the comic book company. And that means, of course, brand new comics coming out this Wednesday.

So, for those of you who eagerly await new comics each and every week, here’s the list of titles coming out from our friends at Marvel, via the official press release. We’ve also got some of the cool covers for you after the jump. So be sure and check those out as well.

Hey there True Believers, here’s your official list of comic books, collections and posters arriving in comic stores on September 2nd, 2009. For more information on any of these titles, and on upcoming mighty Marvel releases, please visit http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?date=2009-09-02 or contact your local comic book retailer at 1-888-comicbook.

Stay tuned each week for a brand new list of Marvel releases so that you’ll never miss your favorite heroes in action!

Comics On-Sale:

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Pull of the Week:

War of Kings #6 – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 8.5

Wow. That’s the first reaction after reading this issue. Any sort of recap of the events in it would unfortunately be spoilerific due to that fact that so much happens of consequence in its pages. And with an issue this good, spoilers would take away from so many of the great moments upon reading through it. What can be told is that as expected, the war itself comes to a conclusion in this issue.

War of Kings #6 starts off with Vulcan and Black Bolt squaring off inside the t-bomb ship, Black Bolt’s weapon that if detonated would release terrigen mists throughout the universe transforming all its people in to Inhumans. The book goes back and forth between this fight and gives glimpses of others who have been pulled in to the conflict like the Inhuman royal family, Havok and Polaris, and Gladiator.

This issue revolves around emotion. Vulcan’s insane rage and overconfidence is contrasted by Black Bolt’s cold and calculated silence. The king of the Inhumans knows he was going to be on a mission there’d be no coming back from by setting off the t-bomb and the determination and fervor he fights with shows he has full intentions of following through on this.

The Inhuman royal family is filled with anger of their own as some members applaud Black Bolt’s actions while others who were unaware of his intentions violently plead to know why they were not brought up to speed. Havok, Polaris and Gladiator all look at the war in mourning, seeing what once was a great empire of the Imperium before Vulcan defiled it and the Inhuman’s assault ravaged it to a point that it may never recover from under anyone’s leadership.

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Lots of news has been coming out recently about the Seth Rogen project about a green-wearing crime fighter who wears a mask. First, Kung Fu Hustle star and director Stephen Chow was set to play Kato and take the helm as director of the film. Later, Chow backed out and now the eccentric director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Michel Gondry, has stepped in and taken over the project.

No word on who will fill the shoes of kung fu kickery, but last week Cameron Diaz became attached as Rogen’s love interest and now word comes that Nicolas Cage will be taking the role of the main “gangster villain.” Plenty can be said about Nicolas Cage and his over-the-top acting style, or even his ability to act at all.

But if there’s one thing he is, it’s a self-proclaimed nerd. He named one of his sons Kal-El after Superman, and the other after Luke Cage. He was in the lead contention for the part of the Man of Steel when Tim Burton was attached, and he’s currently filming in the role of Big Daddy for the big-screen adaptation of Mark Millar’s Kick Ass. Also, who could ever forget his turn in Ghost Rider? Not this writer, sadly.

With Nic Cage being cast in this pulp/satirical film, does this mean we will see more over-the-top acting like in The Wicker Man? Or will this be another attempt by Cage at a serious role like in Next — which was pretty terrible. No wa to know yet, but with Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the creative team behind Superbad, involved, you can probably expect this film to be more on the comical side.

It’s funny, even though the major (and minor) Hollywood studios seem to be cranking out as many comic book movie adaptations as they can, most of them don’t really end up being much of anything to write home about. And some others, such as Daredevil, Batman & Robin, Ghost Rider and Catwoman really suck.

In fact, last year I did two articles for ComicMix about the what I considered, up to that point, the Best and Worst comic book to film adaptations. Since then, we’ve had several more movie based on comics. But for the most part, I think my picks still stand as they are. In a similar vein is Zac Bertschy new article over at Topless Robot. In the article, Bertschy outlines what he feels are the five things comic book movies need to stop doing.

I don’t want to take anything away from the article by talking about it too much here. However, here’s some highlights that I particularly like. First, according to Bertschy, Hollywood needs to stop trying to cram so many villains into each movie. Second, he feels comic book movies need to stop wasting awesome side characters like they do, for example, in the X-Men movies.

Finally, he feels strongly that Hollywood should stop making feature-length origin stories because most people either already know where Batman comes from or don’t care — they just want to see him in action. Its a great article and covers a lot of ground.

I agree with almost everyting he says in it as well. Although, I did enjoy X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Batman Begins and Iron Man, all of which are origin stories. I guess Hollywood can get it right sometimes.