Praise be Jebus! Hallemalujah! Frank Miller has seen the light, and found The Spirit. Glory and ...er, what's that? This isn't a story about religion, it's about a comic book character? The Spirit that Miller's found is an actor called Gabriel Macht? Oh. Don't we feel silly.
Anyhoo, as regular readers may remember, The Spirit is a classic Will Eisner comic book character, a young detective who fakes his own death and becomes a masked crime fighter. He's up against the baddest big bad in his hometown of Central City, known as The Octopus, a man who kills anyone unlucky enough to see his face (Miller wants Samuel L. Jackson for that role, according to internet rumour).
Macht's not a bad choice for the role - he looks the part, if a little blonder (but that's why we have Just For Men, after all), and he's been charming in a number of small-scale releases in the past couple of years. He was the only bearable thing in Because I Said So, and appeared briefly in The Good Shepherd. You'll get a better look at him in the forthcoming Whiteout, which previewed at Comic Con last week.
Frank Miller said he chose Macht on the basis of an audition process, with the studio claiming that his "devilishly charming quality" is perfect for the character in what they hope will be a franchise. Filming is due to start in October for a 2009 release - but let's hope they find a good villain, whether Jackson or not, before then.