Eva Mendes moved to join "Spirit"

  Cast member Eva Mendes poses during a photocall for US director Gray's film
" We Own the Night" at Cannes.[Reuters]

Eva Mendes has joined the cast of the fantasy thriller "Will Eisner's The Spirit."

The project revolves around a rookie cop (Gabriel Macht) who returns from the dead to fight crime as the Spirit from the shadows of Central City. Already on board are Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Mendes has the key role of Sand Saref, a beauty with dangerous curves. She is described as the only woman who could break the Spirit's heart. As teenage lovers, the two were torn apart when Sand's father was accidentally killed by the Spirit's uncle.

Comic auteur Frank Miller ("Sin City") is directing. Production will begin in October in New Mexico. Lionsgate is scheduled to release the film domestically in 2009.

Mendes, who has appeared in the hits "Hitch" and "Ghost Rider," next appears in Columbia's "We Own the Night" opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall.