Director Mark Steven Johnson says Ghost Rider is the darkest comic book character ever.

Johnson is confident film fans will love Nicolas Cage's portrayal of the character, a stunt motorcyclist who sells his soul to the devil, in the film of the same name.

He said in an interview with Empire magazine: "I started reading 'Ghost Rider' when I was ten. It's my favourite, that's how I learned to read. It doesn't come much darker than this character.

"Ghost Rider is interesting because he is the most visual cartoon character ever created. Something about the flaming skull and motorcycle resonates. People got tattoos of him for a reason."

Johnson - who also wrote and directed 'Daredevil', which starred Ben Affleck as the blind superhero - admits he is glad the movie is complete after working on it for four years.

He said: "This is all I have done since May 2003. It's not like I am making f***ing 'Lawrence of Arabia'. I'm making a movie about a f***ing dude with a skull on fire!"