Naomi Watts making "Promises" for Cronenberg

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 while giving birth in a London hospital. Watts plays a midwife whose search for the girl's family takes her to London's shady Russian crime community and to a Russian crime boss who is not what he seems. Focus Features will produce the project and release it stateside. Shooting is set to start in November in London.