Shazam star Zachary Levi has lined up his next major role. The rising actor is set to take the lead in a new action/comedy titled Spy Guys for New Line Cinema. This comes from producers Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, who make up the comedy trio The Lonely Island. Jeff Tomsic (Tag) is set to direct and, if all goes well, this project is going to be coming down the pipeline sooner rather than later.

According to a new report, New Line is currently in negotiations with Zachary Levi to take on the lead role in Spy Guys. He will be playing a superspy, in the vein of Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt from the Mission: Impossible movies. The hope is that they can get this movie in production quickly before Levi is needed back in the DC Universe for Shazam 2, which is currently being worked on, given the success that the first movie enjoyed earlier this year. The script was penned by Adam Sztykiel, who previously scripted movies such as Rampage and Due Date.

While a full synopsis hasn't been released, Spy Guys will center on Zachary Levi's character, who is a star superspy. He finds himself in a bad situation on an extremely difficult mission and must turn to his moronic college friends for help to sort it all out, as they happen to be with him at the time. This sounds very much like it will be picking up where movies like Spy Hard and Austin Powers left off. As of this writing, there is no word on who may be eyed to join Levi in the movie. However, if things continue down the fast track, casting would likely begin to fill out the ensemble in a hurry.

This is a move that seems to make sense for all parties involved. Zachary Levi has been kicking around Hollywood for a long time, having starred in the series Chuck and in the Thor movies over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But Shazam boosted his profile in a major way, as the movie was embraced by critics and moviegoers alike. As the very likable lead in a big-budget superhero movie, Levi gained a lot of good will. Warner Bros. and New Line are hoping to capitalize on that.

Jeff Tomsic made his directorial debut with Tag, which was moderately successful at the box office. He had previously worked on Comedy Central shows such as Broad City and Idiotsitter. It's not yet clear how soon the studio hopes to begin production on Shazam 2. If they can't get this movie together in time, and assuming they're committed to doing it with Zachary Levi in the lead, then it may have to wait until he's done with his next round of superhero business. John Rickard is also on board to produce for the studio. This news was first reported by Deadline.