Cage Is No Faint Nicolas

Melbourne Celebrates With `Ghost Rider'

This bridge features prominently in the hit movie `Ghost Rider'.

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There is a special reason for Melburnians to be proud that the Nicolas Cage film `Ghost Rider' has taken first place at the US box office. The Sony film - with Cage as a motorcycle stunt driver moonlighting as a collector of evil souls for the devil - took in $44.5 million on its opening weekend. It was slightly more than double the return for Disney's `Bridge to Terabithia', which took in $22.1 million. The impressive stats for `Ghost Rider' were a new record for the President's Day weekend.
So why are the good citizens of Melbourne rejoicing vicariously? Because much of the movie was filmed here, that's why. The high-octane action flick, based on the Ghost Rider Marvel comics, was filmed at several locations in and around Melbourne and more than 500 Victorians worked on the movie. The most expensive film ever shot in Melbourne, it transforms a genteel city into the home of a ``flaming-skulled, chain-wielding merchant of vengeance''.
This shot of the title character zooming over the bridge (left) is one of the more memorable images in the film, so I thought I'd take some shots to give you a feel for the place.
The bridge in the signature stunt sequence is actually the graceful, arched footbridge that connects Southbank to Banana Alley, just across the Yarra River.
Despite the hot weather blanketing Melbourne at the moment, the area that features so prominently in the action sequences was rather foggy this morning, so I went down there with my camera as the city came to life.
I took the first of the two pictures (at the top of this blogpost) to give you an idea of the size of the bridge and just how daunting the task was.
As you can see, it would have been a long way to fall if things went wrong. And just to give you a different view of the bridge, I shot the second frame, the aerial view, from the HWT building next door. Look closely at the frame and you'll see a silver-and-blue train pulling into Flinders Street station - which in turn will give you an idea of perspective and size.
Melburnians will be watching the film sequences very carefully - to pick out familiar, everyday locations. Almost 80 per cent of `Ghost Rider' was filmed at prominent city locations during a six-month shoot in the first half of 2005. Some sequences were filmed at the Docklands film studios on the waterfront.
The supervising location manager, Russell Boyd, said city landmarks like Telstra Dome, Southbank, the Showgrounds, Carlton's Melbourne General Cemetery, the University of Melbourne and Treasury Gardens were some of the locations used in the film. ``They really wanted it to be a fairly nondescript town in Texas, although that's never explicitly mentioned,'' Boyd said.
Writer and director Mark Steven Johnson hit the nail on the head when he said, in a written statement, that Melbourne is a city of many moods and many faces. ``Every neighbourhood's different. Cobblestone streets, like in the Village in New York. And then suddenly there's cable cars and you're in San Francisco. You're in Chicago and there's the river and the bridge.''
The bridge, in fact, featured prominently during an intensive three-day shoot at Southbank, when film bosses made a special request of the skyscrapers on either side of the river. All office towers complied with a special request to leave their lights blazing during shooting. And the shooting itself was a real buzz for the good citizens of this city.
I remember driving into the area just before dawn one morning and seeing helicopters and police cars - before I realised all was well and that it was simply a scene being shot for the movie. Despite the hour (and the weather) there were still onlookers watching, ready to tell of the day they saw a Hollywood action movie being. So, as actors dangled from ropes and the stuntmen performed spectaular feats, the cameras rolled, transforming our city into a celluloid wonderland.
Like they say, there ain't nuthin' bigger than Texas. Except Melbourne, maybe!