Nicolas Cage prefers Ghost Rider over Superman

It's no secret that Nicolas Cage is a huge Superman fan. He planned to play the superhero for years before Superman Returns came out and he even named his kid Kal-el, which was Superman's Kryptonian birth name. But things don't always turn out as planned and Cage ended up out of the Superman project, which he now says is a good thing: "I'm very thankful that they made the movie they wanted to make and that I wasn't in it because, it wasn't obviously the right character for me. I like what Brandon did with it. He fit within what they wanted, a much more nostalgic tribute. I was going to turn it upside down with Tim Burton. I was going to try to find new ways of expressing that part."

Instead, Cage got to play another comic book character -- Johnny Blaze, a.k.a. Ghost Rider. Cage has been burning up the box office with his portrayal of the supernatural skeletal bounty hunter, and he said the role was a good fit: "I do think GhostRider was a better match for me, and I like being able to introduce you to a character. I could tailor-make this character for you from scratch. And I don't have to answer to anybody. I don't have to answer to the studio, I don't have to answer to a previous understanding of a performance of a character. It's never been done before."

Ghost Rider was Number One for two weeks in a row and faces another motorcycle-related movie, Wild Hogs, this weekend.