Naomi to take on crime drama

Naomi Watts has signed on to star alongside Viggo Mortensen in 'Eastern Promises,' a crime-flavored drama from Canadian director David Cronenberg. In the film, a 14-year-old girl dies on Christmas giving birth in a London hospital. The hospital`s midwife (Watts) sets out to find the girl`s family for the orphaned child. Her search takes her to London`s shady Russian crime community and to a Russian crime boss (Mortensen) who is not what he seems. Scripted by Steve Knight ('Dirty Pretty Things'), 'Promises' was developed by the BBC before being picked up by Focus Films, which will produce the project and release it stateside. Shooting is set to start in November in London. This will be the second pairing of Cronenberg and Mortensen after the Oscar-nominated 'A History of Violence,' which bowed In Competition last year at Cannes. [MandC]