"Ghost Rider" Sequel Without Nick Cage?

Columbia Pictures is having to go ahead with "Ghost Rider II" with or without actor Nic Cage so that they can secure the rights of the Marvel Comic character.
Columbia are telling us that if Nic Cage don't commit to the project this year, then they may have to cast someone else as Ghost Rider instead. Which means whole new cast seeing as Eva Mendes is officially not returning. Might as well just reboot it then, because the studio did have plans to reboot with Nic Cage being kept as the rider, but it seems they just wanna make a straight sequel to the 2007 film. Columbia also added that if they don't go into production with this sequel by November 14th 2010, then they will legally loose the rights for the character. This means that it would then go to Marvel's new owner, Disney, who would then end up turning the dark franchise into something like a kids film. Happy family film. Noooooooooo!
So far Columbia have a their first draft of a script for the sequel, that was turned in by Writer David S Goyer, who is also writting, "Untitled Batman 3 Project" and "Superman 3.0 Reboot". WOW! Busy guy isn't he.
So the clock is ticking for Columbia Pictures to go ahead with Cage or not. Cage may not be able to do it as he may be starting filming on the recently announced, "National Treasure 3" with Disney.