http://lebeauleblog.com/2013/02/09/what-the-hell-happened-to-nicolas-cage/
Cage, who took his screen name from a Marvel comic book, had always wanted to play a super hero. When Superman fell through, he was apprached for the villain role in Spider-man. He also was attached to play Iron Man at one point. In 2007, he finally got his chance to play a comic book character in Ghost Rider.
As super heroes go, the flame-skulled Ghost Rider ranks somewhere below Aquaman. Making matters worse, the film was written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the auteur behind the Grumpy Old Men films and both Daredevil and Elektra.
Despite bad reviews, Ghost Rider was reasonably successful at the box office. Cage was nominated for another Golden Raspberry for his performance.
In 2012, Cage made a sequel to Ghost Rider. Lets not waste a lot of time here. You know the drill by now. The movie got bad reviews and flopped in the US. But it was a hit overseas.