Comic movie catchup: 'Spirit' cast; 'Punisher 2' set; more!

Having finally recovered from the case of San Diego SARS, which appears to be the preferred name for any kind of illness contracted in this year’s mass of humanity, here’s catching up on a few things comics-to-film wise, with more pure comicbooky stuff to come later.

* Gabriel Macht has been cast in the title role of Frank Miller's adaptation of "Will Eisner's The Spirit." Macht was most recently seen in "The Good Shepherd," and also stars in the upcoming "Whiteout," based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Leiber. Pic is set to shoot this fall for a 2009 release.

* "Watchmen" gets a release date of March 9, 2009, at its official site, which also serves up a closer look at the new Dave Gibbons poster.

* Marc Graser has a good roundup of the next gen of comicbook publishers looking to go Hollywood in this week's weekly Variety.

* "The Punisher 2" is set to shoot this fall, as well, with Ray Stevenson of HBO's "Rome" donning the skull-emblazoned battled armor. Pic will be directed by Lexi Alexander and find the Punisher going up against mobsters in NYC.

* Wizard has a nice summary of what's going on with the "Wolverine" pic.

* George Miller is rumored to be in talks to direct the "Justice League" film.