Alex Pettyfer was honored at this year's ShoWest as the Male Star of Tomorrow, which I guess is the only appropriate award to give to a guy who, er, no one has actually heard of. Pettyfer is the star of this summer's Beastly (along with Vanessa Hudgens), and clearly his star is already rising, because he's got another major project on his plate as well. Variety is reporting that Pettyfer is in talks to star in I Am Number Four, the sci-film to be based on a soon-to-be-published novel by James Frey and Jobie Hughes.

Pettyfer would be playing a Superman-style alien hiding out on Earth after the destruction of his home planet-- no word on whether he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but it's probably not out of the question. Unlike Superman, Pettyfer's character isn't alone-- he's part of a group of nine survivors, and I'm guessing he's been assigned the number four for some reason. Eagle Eye's D.J. Caruso is directing with Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg teaming up to produce. Pettyfer may only be a rising star now, but with collaborators like those he'll probably be running things before too long.