Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Marvel?

Not too long ago we spent some time looking at the gay slashfic phenomenon (where gay comic and sci-fans write their own fictional romance tales involving their favorite characters). It's like fantasy football, except the football players are nerdier and generally end up sleeping with one another. Well, the phenomenon is about to get a shot in the arm -- SciFi.com picked up that the New York Daily News has reported that Jake Gyllenhaal is in line to play Captain Marvel in New Line's planned Shazam! movie, based on the D.C. comic series. According to SciFi:

The paper's Rush & Molloy column, citing anonymous sources, reported that the movie is New Line's bid for a franchise on the order of Batman and Superman. "They're ready to spend up to $200 million to get it started," one source told the columnists. The columnists also reported that director Peter Segal and his fellow producers want to nab Gyllenhaal before Spider-Man director Sam Raimi does. With Spider-Man 3, due to open on May 4, star Tobey Maguire has said he may let someone else play the webslinger in subsequent installments.

Those familiar with Captain Marvel (who is essentially a twelve-year-old boy imbued with the powers of the ancient gods) know that he's generally drawn pretty muscular -- looks like Jake will be hitting the gym if he gets the part. Here's a picture of one of the hero's incarnations: And if you're a superhero fan, be sure to check out our chat yesterday with Tobias Trost, the gay contestant from the first season of Who Wants to be a Superhero?. Hmm ... these things always come in threes, don't they? What's next, I wonder ... hey, does anyone know what Ryan Reynolds is up to? I've got a pair of tights with his name on them.