Goyer developed a script and in May 2000, Marvel announced an agreement with Crystal Sky Entertainment to film Ghost Rider with actor Jon Voight attached as a producer. Production was scheduled to start in early 2001 with a budget of $75 million and Johnny Depp expressing interest in the lead role. The following August, Dimension Films joined Crystal Sky to co-finance the film, which would be directed by Stephen Norrington. Producer Avi Arad approached Eric Bana on the possibility of playing Ghost Rider, but opted to cast him in Hulk instead. In June 2001, actor and Ghost Rider fan Nicolas Cage entered talks to be cast into the lead role, after having found out about Depp being a possibility for the role and contacted the director to express his own interest. Norrington would drop out within a few months due his commitment to Tick Tock and Cage eventually left the project as well. By May 2002, Columbia Pictures sought to acquire rights to Ghost Rider in turnaround from Dimension Films following their success with Spider-Man. They brought Shane Salerno to rewrite Goyer's script. Pre-production In April 2003, under Columbia Pictures, director Mark Steven Johnson took over the helm for Ghost Rider with Cage returning for the lead role. Johnson, rewriting Salerno's script, was set to begin production of Ghost Rider in late 2003 or early 2004, but it was delayed to October. Cage took a temporary leave of absence to film The Weather Man. Ghost Rider production was slated to tentatively begin in May or June 2004. Despite the previous listed actors, Johnson claimed that Cage was the only actor they considered for the role of Johnny Blaze. Cage said that the film should be Rated R. Ghost Rider had again been delayed to begin in late 2004, but the lack of a workable script continued to delay production. Johnson revealed that the original draft featured the character Scarecrow as the main villain, but the studio convinced him to change it to Blackheart so that audiences did not confuse him for the DC character of the same name. Actor Wes Bentley was cast as the Blackheart, having been introduced to Johnson by Colin Farrell, who had worked with the director in Daredevil. Actress Eva Mendes was also cast opposite Cage as Roxanne Simpson. Filming Ghost Rider commenced filming in Australia at the Melbourne Docklands film studios on February 14, 2005.