Nicolas Cage has made some turkeys in his time, but two of the biggest ones were 2007's Ghost Rider and its 2012 sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Cage played supernatural superhero Johnny Blaze in the films adapted from the Marvel Comics series, and to say that they weren't particularly well-received critically (with a current score of 26% and 17% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes) is something of an understatement - although they were both big box-office hits.

Now, the actor has publicly expressed his disappointment in how the films turned out, revealing that he thinks the rating scuppered their potential edginess.

He told JoBlo: “Ghost Rider was a movie that always should’ve been an R-rated movie. [Writer] David Goyer had a brilliant script which I wanted to do with David, and for whatever reason they just didn’t let us make the movie.”

He added: “That movie is a still a movie that should be made, not with me obviously, but it should be an R-rated movie.

“Heck, Deadpool was R-rated and that did great. Ghost Rider was designed to be a scary superhero with an R-rating and edge, and they just didn’t have it worked out back then.”