The acquisition of Marvel by Disney has had an inevitable knock-on effect. Studios that currently have deals to use Marvel characters have been quick to get things moving on related movie projects, presumably with one eye on their rights to films based on the characters lapsing and returning to Disney. Thus, earlier this week we learned that producer Lauren Shuler-Donner had effectively extended the slate of potential X-Men movies to six at Fox, the same studio that's planning to reboot the Fantastic Four franchise and possibly churn out a Silver Surfer movie.

Now it's the turn of Sony. With three Spider-Man films currently planned there's little need for it to do much else there, so instead it's turned its attention to a follow up to the surprise 2007 hit Ghost Rider. The original film, starring Nicolas Cage with his face on fire, brought in over $220m at the box office alone, and a sequel has been touted since.

The fresh development on the project is that Sony has dusted down an old script from David Goyer (who wrote the screenplays for the Blade trilogy, of course, directing Blade: Trinity too) and is set to use that as the basis for Ghost Rider 2. Goyer hasn't, according to Variety, signed on the dotted line for a new film, yet he's in talks to cement his involvement. Whether that would see him stepping behind the camera too isn't yet clear. Nicolas Cage, fresh from his departure from The Green Hornet, is likely to return.

The project is still very much in its infancy, however, and while there's a need for a little haste given that Sony is unlikely to want to surrender the rights back to Disney-owned Marvel, we'd be surprised if it was before the cameras in the coming year.

Variety