Gabriel Macht is The Spirit

Macht was most recently in The Good Shepherd, and is in another comics-to-film adaptation, Whiteout (along side Kate Beckinsale). Frank Miller is writing and directing the big screen version of Will Eisner's book, with an October '09 release date.

What's interesting is that this story came out the Thursday after Comic-Con. Why? This could've been one of the big announcements of the show. Either they weren't able to get the deal in time or they were holding until after so they could be the first big post-con news. Then again, I'm just spitballing here. Source