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Fresh off his recent screen triumph in which he played a cartoonist in hot pursuit of an elusive serial killer who may or may not have also provided the voice of Roger Rabbit, Jake Gyllenhaal may next may thrill his legions of Brokeback-dialogue-spouting admirers by slipping into some red tights and gold lamé to play second-tier-Superman Captain Marvel:

Jake Gyllenhaal may soon collect an awfully big paycheck as America's latest superhero. We hear New Line execs are keen to have the "Brokeback Mountain" hunk play Captain Marvel in "Shazam!" Based on the DC comic, 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," an insider tells us. Sources say 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 web slinger.

Gyllenhaal is long overdue to don a cape and tights, and while Captain Marvel hardly holds the same, lofty place in the fanboy consciousness as Spider-Man, Batman, and the rest, we think the capable actor will be able to aptly make the lighting-activated superhero his own, and not resort to merely mimicking, Brandon Routh-style, the role's indelible, 1970s interpreter: in this case being actor Jackson Bostwick, star of the Shazam!-half of CBS's The Shazam!/Isis Hour.