Has Deadpool finally found a director? The search has been long and candidates have sat in the chair before, but all have fallen out. Now 20th Century Fox thinks it might just have found the person to wrangle the “merc with a mouth” in Tim Miller.

Tim who? He might not have any directing credits to his name, but he’s certainly an old hand when it comes to bringing superheroes to life. He’s worked on the effects for films such as X-Men and its sequel, Daredevil and, most recently, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. He’s also a veteran of other genre material including Planet of the Apes and Cats & Dogs. Plus, he’s been part of the team looking to get Eric Powell’s cult classic comic character The Goon into cinemas.

Deadpool, which boasts a script by Zombieland co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, has been a film in need of a director for a while now. Robert Rodriguez was among those seriously interested, while Sweden’s Adam Berg has also been linked to the job.

And while Fox refused to comment for the LA Times story, Reese hit Twitter to confirm the news of Miller landing the gig. No doubt the studio will be hoping that locking in a director pushes the project along to such a degree that it can finally secure Ryan Reynolds to return as Wade Wilson, the unbalanced killer who often cracks wise and breaks the fourth wall while carrying out his deadly tasks. Reynolds has constantly said that he wants to make the movie, but the sticking point has been his increasingly packed schedule…