The actor is in talks to play the Octopus in Frank Miller’s ‘The Spirit’.

Samuel L. Jackson is in negotiations to play the villainous Octopus in Frank Miller‘s planned adaptation of The Spirit, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Miller said that Jackson is his first choice to play The Spirit’s mysterious adversary who knows the secrets of superhero — a murdered young cop named Denny Colt who’s reborn as a masked crimefighter.

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

While the supervillain’s face was never revealed to the reader of the comic book series created by the late Will Eisner, the Octopus could be identified by the distinctive gloves he always wore.

The film will mark the first solo directing project for Miller, who wrote the screenplay based on the Eisner series. (Miller co-helmed 2005’s Sin City with Robert Rodriguez.)