PARK CITY, Utah -- Josh Hartnett, who turned down $100 million US to play the Man of Steel, is filled with one feeling at the sight of the new Superman.

And it's not regret.

"Thank God I'm not wearing the tights," Hartnett says with a laugh.

Yes -- laugh.

Should any 27-year-old actor who declines a $100 million US job offer -- even if it does involve donning a red cape and bikini briefs for three films -- be laughing? Apparently so.

Hartnett, lanky and good-natured in person, says he decided two years ago to only make movies because they interested him -- not because they'd make him ridiculously wealthy.

"You get offered things every day. If you're lucky enough to be offered movies in Hollywood and you're lucky enough to be able to choose between them, there are a million different people trying to pull you in a million different directions, whether it's because it will be more successful for you or more successful for them. You have to find what you want ...

"I'm happy for whoever does the role," he says of Brandon Routh, who landed the gig in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns.

"But it's not my kind of thing, you know."

What is Hartnett's kind of thing?

He's here at the Sundance Film Festival to promote Lucky Number Slevin, a violent, post-Tarantino gangster mystery in which Hartnett's titular character is the subject of a lethal case of mistaken identity.

"I'm happy to be here for Slevin because people have responded well to it. It's so much more fun promoting a film that people like."

Alongside Hartnett is an A-list cast that includes "world-class assassin" (Bruce Willis) and two rival ganglords (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley).

Slevin's only ally appears to be Lindsay, a chatterbox played by Lucy Liu. Naturally the two fall for each other. And they clicked off-screen as well.

"It's hard not to find Josh attractive," Liu says. "He's this big, tall, strapping young man. We rehearsed the summer before we shot in the movie in January and we got along immediately."

It's another of Hartnett's co-stars, however, who has been linked romantically to the actor in the press -- Scarlett Johansson, who acts opposite Hartnett in the forthcoming film noir The Black Dahlia.

"She's terrific," he says when asked about working with Johansson.

"She's an extremely talented young actress. Hilary Swank (who also stars in Dahlia), Lucy, Scarlett -- I've been a lucky guy the past few years. I've had really talented actresses around me."

If the thought of Hartnett being unavailable depresses his female fans, kthey can take comfort knowing that in Slevin, the actor wears only a towel for the first 20 minutes of the movie.

Asked by one female journalist if he worked out in preparation for the scene, Hartnett guffaws.

"Absolutely not. Did you see the movie?"

And, yes, one co-star did attempt to take his towel -- although not Liu.

"Morgan tried to take it off," Hartnett says. "I don't know what that was all about."