Posted: Tue., Aug. 21, 2007, 4:55pm PT

Mendes gets in Frank Miller’s ‘Spirit’
Actress joins Johansson, Jackson in cast

By DAVE MCNARY

Eva Mendes will round out the cast for Frank Miller’s “The Spirit,” joining Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson and Gabriel Macht.

Pic, produced by Lionsgate and Odd Lot, will begin lensing in October at New Mexico’s Albuquerque Studios.

Miller wrote the script and will direct the movie, which marks the start of a multipic pact under which Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment will co-finance and co-produce together. Story centers on a rookie cop who fakes his own death so he can fight crime from the shadows.

Lionsgate has domestic and U.K. rights and is scheduled to release the film in 2009.

Odd Lot’s Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker will produce along with Michael Uslan of Batfilm Prods; Batfilm co-founder Benjamin Melniker and Steve Maier are exec producers. Odd Lot’s Linda McDonough and Batfilm’s F.J. DeSanto co-produce.

Mendes was most recently in Columbia’s “Ghost Rider” and will be seen next in Columbia’s “We Own the Night.” She’s currently filming Picturehouse’s “The Women.”

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117970627.html

© 2007 Reed Business Information