Brandon Routh is cooling his heels somewhere, waiting to find out if he'll have to don the red and blue Spandex suit again, but in the meantime the former Superman is taking a role in a movie that could probably use the help of the caped crusader.

He's joining Carrie-Anne Moss, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Sheen and others in Unthinkable, a thriller about an American Muslim man who claims to have placed nuclear bombs in three U.S. cities. The Hollywood Reporter says Routh, Gil Bellows and Moss will play FBI agents who are helped in their investigation by a black-ops agent, played by--who else?--Samuel L. Jackson.

Are we prepared to accept Routh as anyone but Clark Kent? He'll have his chance to prove his comedy chops in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and I guess this will be his chance to do action that doesn't involve leaping buildings with a single bound.