Writer/director Frank "Sin City" Miller has signed actor Gabriel "The Good Shepherd" Macht to play 'Denny Colt' in the upcoming big-screen adaptation of creator Will Eisner’s "The Spirit.""We think Gabriel has a devilishly charming quality, and the dry wit that embodies the 'Spirit'," said Lionsgate's Mike Paseornek.
"We wanted to do this with someone who can embody this character for the next few years, because we anticipate we'll be making more than one Spirit movie."
In the screenplay, Denny Colt fakes his own death so he can battle crime from the shadows of 'Central City', facing off against the 'Octopus', played by Samuel "Snakes On A Plane" L. Jackson.
'The Spirit" is being co-financed by Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment, for Odd Lot producers Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete. Sony Pictures will distribute in Europe and Latin America with Lionsgate handling domestic and Great Britain.
At the last New York Comic-Con, producers Michael Uslan, F.J. DeSanto and publisher Dennis Kitchen, talked about Miller's take.
Miller who could not attend the convention, was reportedly cutting and pasting Eisner's work, creating storyboards on the wall of his home to structure the screenplay.
"Central City comes alive as a true character in this," Uslan said about the adaptation, but stressed the film will not be an origin story. 
"The basis of the film is the very early Eisner work," said DeSanto. 
Uslan said there would be 'heavy emphasis' on the numerous femme fatale characters in the "Spirit" world, with a film rating "more of a hard PG-13."The film will start shooting in October.
