If at first you don’t succeed, push your movie into the graveyard and try again. That seems to be the attitude behind Columbia Picture’s Ghost Rider adaptation – a film that originally had a prestigious July release date but has been pushed into the bowels of cinematic hell with its current February 16th, 2007 date. Marvel isn’t giving up on the motorcycle riding demon though. In fact, to get the hype blazing again, Columbia is getting the first official trailer for Ghost Rider a place alongside Marvel’s most popular super hero franchises: the upcoming X-Men 3.

That’s right – if you didn’t see the previously “leaked” internet footage, which offered about half a second of ol’ flame head himself, writer/director Mark Steven Johnson has told Super Hero Hype that you’ll finally get a peek at Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider when the trailer finally debuts with X-Men 3: The Last Stand. Along with that news Johnson gave Super Hero Hype some exclusive artwork for the movie, which features Ghost Rider as a Clint Eastwood/Pale Rider type figure. Click the link above to see that artwork.

I have an extremely low outlook for this movie. Although I’m typically of the belief that Nicolas Cage can save just about any project, there’s a reason movies are buried in February. Moving a comic-book adaptation from one of the year’s busiest months to one of the worst months can never be a good sign.

For more information on Ghost Rider, visit our preview database.