CHRISTOPHER YOUNG ON "GHOST RIDER"

"The film opens up with Johnny Blaze, a youngster, working with his dad in a motorcycle daredevil show for a traveling circus. His father is dying of cancer, and so the devil, played by Peter Fonda, shows up and offers to save his father if Johnny will sign his soul away. So, Johnny does that to try to help his father, and then ironically, the following day his father, who has gotten rid of the cancer, gets in a motorcycle accident and dies anyway. So, the Ghost Rider is an indentured servant to the devil; he is waiting for the devil to call him to take his soul away. And he, himself, becomes a daredevil motorcycle rider, sort of like Evel Knievel. The devil shows up one day and says, 'Here's your job: 'I'm gonna turn you into this Ghost Rider, so you'll have the power to do battle with Blackheart.' So, the score has to keep it dark.

"The main function of the score is to give the film epic proportions and yet keep the comic book flavor. The music adds to the epic nature and illuminates the fact that it's about a comic book character.

"What (director Mark Steven Johnson ) said he wanted was definitely a melody-driven score. He wanted the Ghost Rider (Nicolas Cage) to have a main theme. But what made it interesting is that he said he wanted the score to be an odd hybrid of Gothic Western industrial music.

"All the action takes place in the Midwest. Unlike Superman, Spiderman or Batman, who are superheroes that do work in the city, here we're talking about a character that rides around in the desert on a motorcycle. So, the location and the Midwestern element had to be worked in to the score, (which is) Gothic (-sounding) because it's just a very dark story line. The Ghost Rider has a pact to work with the devil.

"A lot of the film is jam-packed with action, and certainly, the music helps push the film forward. It illuminates his character and the whole nature of the film.

"In order to communicate the Western element, there were some guitars; there were acoustic guitars. There was a trumpet used, but in the end, it was more industrial, less Western. I used electric guitars and some members of Nine Inch Nails. The Western aspect of the score got diminished; there's very little of that left. It's more Gothic-industrial. I would have to say that it's an exciting score and unlike anything I've scored before."

Source: Hollywoodreporter.com