Frank Miller has been burying himself in casting sessions for his adaptation of Will Eisner’s 1940s noir comic, The Spirit. The comic series followed the crime-fighting adventures of a masked vigilante, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson are reportedly lined up as the film’s villains:

Jackson would play the Spirit’s nemesis, the Octopus, a meek lab assistant who reinvents himself as a psychotic nightmare that kills anyone unfortunate enough to see his face. The Octopus’ tentacles reach into every aspect of crime in fictitious Central City, a city he plans to wipe out.

Johansson will play a dangerous beauty named Silk N. Floss, a character that THR describes as “a sexy and intelligent secretary with a vindictive instinct that makes her the perfect accomplice to the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), an evil mastermind.” It appears that the character was created for the film adaptation and will probably be a combination of characters from the comic series.

Johansson will likely perform well as a femme fatale, and while Jackson’s films are hit-and-miss, he is usually the best part of a bad film. Although these casting decisions are somewhat promising, the fact that The Spirit will be a Lionsgate film leaves much skepticism to be had.