Routh is Dylan Dog?

Brandon Routh must be wiped out from all the excessive lifting in SUPERMAN RETURNS — he’s been pretty low-profile since stripping off the tight blue suit. And while it remains to be seen if the big red ‘S’ will become a franchise character for Routh, he’s apparently found another with such potential.

According to the usually reliable Lying in the Gutters, Routh will ditch the spit-curl to star as DYLAN DOG, the title character of a long-running Italian comic. The stories revolve around the charismatic but neurotic London-based “nightmare investigator” who looks into all things supernatural.

Director David R. Ellis (FINAL DESTINATION 2, SNAKES ON A PLANE) will helm the project, which has a reported budget of $35 million and seems to be going by the title DEAD OF NIGHT. Routh will get a taste of weird before that — he’s appearing (along with Mickey Rourke and… Ashley Olsen?) in the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel THE INFORMERS.