“The problem is, it’s very hard to take a family of children to a movie — and they made it a PG-13 movie — about a superhero who, oh, by the way, also happens to have sold his soul to Satan,” he told the site – and how easy is it to mentally picture him saying this, complete with hand gestures?! “So it’s not going to be the most commercial concept or vehicle. But it certainly is the most interesting, and the most thought-provoking. I think if you look back on the movies today, they age well.”

Cage does think there was an opportunity for Ghost Rider to be a trailblazer, however, and it’s one that was ultimately missed.

“Had Ghost Rider been made in R-rated format, the way they had the guts to do with Deadpool, and they did it again today, I’m fairly certain it would be enormously successful. Having said that, I still think the movies were a hit. People don’t look at the subsidiary outlets, like DVD and streaming and whatnot. When you look at what Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor did [on Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance] for $50 million, and they got a $250 million return, you begin to see the genius of the sequel.”

The whole interview is well worth a read, with Cage also describing Face/Off as a “cubist mindfuck” and chatting about the flak he took for choosing The Rock instead of a more ‘worthy’ film after his success with Leaving Las Vegas.

Cage’s critically acclaimed new film Mandy, from Beyond The Black Rainbow director Panos Cosmatos, is now playing. Read our review here.