Comic book and movie websites are all of a-twitter today with the suggestion that Warner Brothers may have found a Superman for their projected Justice League of America movie.

The film, scheduled for release in 2010, is already attracting colossal interest across the web with a new casting rumour surfacing daily: In combining all of DC Comics’ best-known superheroes it will, inevitably, be a hugely expensive special effects showpiece.

As a consequence it’s no surprise perhaps that director George Miller (best known for his Mad Max series) seems to be plumping for lesser-known stars rather than reserving substantial portions of his budget for big name stars like Brandon Routh and Christian Bale – the current Superman and Batman respectively.

Today’s mooted Man of Steel is British actor and banjo enthusiast Rupert Evans, currently known to action movie aficionadi as FBI agent John Myers in Guillermo del Toro’s cult masterpiece Hellboy (itself due a sequel this winter).

The JLA movie is reportedly based at least in in part on the Death of Superman comic book, which might serve to keep the most expensive effects safely offscreen for some of the film's running time. With economy in mind perhaps the producers might prefer to consider John Cleese's light-hearted True Brit graphic novel which reimagined the classic comic book story in Weston-super-Mare rather than Metropolis.

One can only hope that, should the rumours solidify, Evans will not fall prey to the ’curse of Superman’ which has led to the untimely death of many previous actors who have slipped into the famous blue leotard.

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