"Superman Returns" star Brandon Routh will take on a very different kind of comic book hero when he takes the lead in the Hyde Park and Platinum Studios "Dead of Night."

"Dead of Night" is based on Tiziano Sclavi's cult Italian comic book series "Dylan Dog," which focuses on a London-based private investigator, who tackles supernatural crimes with the help of his bumbling assistant Groucho. The series was first published in 1986.

Routh will apparently take the lead role, playing a character whose artistic representation was based on a young Rupert Everett.

According to Variety, Kevin Munroe will direct from a script by Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly.

A relative unknown when he was cast as Clark Kent and the Man of Steel in Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns," Routh's upcoming credits include the feature "The Informers" and a role in one part of NBC's summer anthology "Fear Itself."