Vincent Cassel has signed on to star in the thriller, Eastern Promises for Focus Features and BBC Films.

The film is being directed by David Cronenberg that centers on a nurse (Naomi Watts) investigating the identity of a young Russian prostitute who dies in childbirth. The Hollywood Reporter adds she unwittingly stumbles into a Russian police operation that seeks to expose a major Russian Mafia prostitution ring. Cassel has been cast as Petrid, whose family owns a Russian brothel.

Shooting on Eastern Promises is scheduled to begin in November for a September 2007 release.

Eastern Promises was released September 14th, 2007 and stars Josef Altin, Mina E. Mina, Aleksander Mikic, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Lalita Ahmed, Badi Uzzaman, Naomi Watts, Doña Croll. The film is directed by David Cronenberg.