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

This movie deals with a rookie cop who returns from his death (played by Gabriel Macht) to fight crime as the Spirit from the shadows of Central City. The movie also features big stars like Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Mendes plays Sand Saref, a beauty who has the ability to break the spirits heart. In fact she is the only one out there who can do this. As teenage lovers, the two were torn apart when Sand's father was accidentally killed by the Spirit's uncle.

The production of the movie will begin in New Mexico in this October. Comic auteur Frank Miller ("Sin City") is directing the movie and the production team is expecting to release the movie domestically in 2009.

2006 has been a wonderful year for Eva with hit movies like "Hitch" and "Ghost Rider” and next she will appear in Columbia’s “We Own the Night" opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall.