Amy Adams has been cast as spiky reporter Lois Lane in Zack Snyder's forthcoming Superman film, according to the LA Times. She will star opposite British actor Henry Cavill, who was revealed as the new Man of Steel in January.

Adams, now a three-times Oscar nominee following her best supporting actress nod for David O Russell's The Fighter, was told the news on Sunday following a phone call from Snyder. The director, who will work from a concept developed by the Dark Knight team of Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S Goyer, said Adams was the perfect choice to play the tough yet sensitive journalist who falls for the man from Krypton.

"There was a big, giant search for Lois," Snyder told the Times. "For us it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it."

Snyder said Adams's character would be a "lynchpin" in the latest Superman reimagining, which will attempt to ground the character in a world closer to our own reality than previous iterations.

"It goes back to what I've said about Superman and making him really understandable for today," he said. "What's important to us is making him relevant and real and making him empathetic to today's audience so that we understand the decisions he makes. That applies to Lois as well. She has to be in the same universe as him [in tone and substance]."

Adams, 36, will follow an established big-screen Superman tradition by playing older than her opposite number in the film, tentatively titled Superman: Man of Steel. Cavill is 27, but original Lois Lane Margot Kidder was also four years older than Christopher Reeve in Richard Donner's 1978 Superman, widely considered the best film of the series. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane will play Superman's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, in the new adaptation.

Adams's appointment was announced with unfortunate timing for Warner Bros as Hollywood blog Deadline published a letter from Joanne Siegel, widow of Superman creator Jerry Siegel, to Warner Bros chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes asking him to personally intervene to bring a long-running legal case to a sensible close. The Siegel estate, along with that of co-creator Joe Schuster, recently successfully asserted its copyright to the character in a move which will force Warner to negotiate before making any future Superman films. However the studio has embarked on a strategy to try and force the family's attorney to resign due to an alleged role as a financial participant in the case.

"My daughter Laura and I, as well as the Schuster estate, have done nothing more than exercise our rights under the Copyright Act," wrote Siegel. "Yet, your company has chosen to sue us and our long-time attorney for protecting our rights.

"On December 1st I turned 93. Unfortunately I am not in the best of health. My cardiologist provided a letter to your attorneys informing them that I suffer from a serious heart condition and that forcing me to go through yet another stressful deposition could put me in danger of a heart attack or stroke. Nonetheless your attorneys are forcing me to endure a second deposition even though I have already undergone a deposition for a full day in this matter. As clearly they would be covering the same ground, their intention is to harass me."

Siegel never sent the letter as she died of heart failure in a Los Angeles hospital on 12 February. The Siegel estate's battle with Warner continues.