Check out these bits of casting, and a few actor's wishes for this Monday:

• Mario Van Peebles is whipping up an action thriller called Kerosene Cowboys, and the cast is about to be set. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Cam Gigandet, Shane West, and Rachael Leigh Cook are in negotiations to star in the flick that follows "hard-living pilots of an elite Navy attack squadron." Gigandet will be a "hot-shot pilot," West will play the nemesis who used to be his best friend, and Cook will wrap things up as a journalist who dates Gigandet. At the very least, it looks like a welcome vacation from some of Cook's recent work (from The House of Yes to Blind Ambition ... my, how they fall).
• Vin Diesel is all about the returns lately. First came the latest Fast and Furious pic, and now more triple-X. Variety reports that both Diesel and director Rob Cohen have signed on for another XXX pic, this one titled: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage. While it's not the most unique title out there, at least it's showcasing the plus points -- the return of Mr. Vin.
• Meanwhile, Adam Arkin is taking on the world of Coen. Variety reports that the Life actor has grabbed a role in A Serious Man. There is no word on who he's playing.
• Having just recorded "Another Way to Die" for Quantum of Solace, MTV reports that Alicia Keys would like to be a Bond Girl. Methinks this is something that would work best as a Bond girl/song mixture -- the sexy, iconic Bond girl having the pipes to also belt out the theme song. But no matter what happens, she has this positive report about the film: "it's damn good."

After the jump: De Niro and Pacino ... as women?

When films turn personal, there are a myriad of ways they can turn out. One way I never thought of -- out of body experiences that need soul saving. Variety reports that Val Kilmer, Shane West, Cam Gigandet, Eric Balfour, and Arielle Kebbel have signed on for a film called Silver Cord. James Ordonez will direct the feature, which he wrote with Ken Gord, and relive some personal experiences.

As Variety describes it, the film "centers on Ordonez's brother who came back to life after being declared clinically dead on multiple occasions. The brother died in 2004." But the summary up on IMDb says a whole lot more, written by James himself: "The story of a young man who is separated from the love of his life. To find her he has an Out of Body Experience but the silver cord that connects his soul with his body breaks and he is believed to be dead. In a desperate race against time his friends have less than 24 hours to save his soul before his body is cremated."

It's not every day you get so-called true life stories about people leaving their body to find paramours and then losing their body and being declared dead. Since he'd been declared dead a number of times, I guess the dude had a penchant for out-of-body travel.

Just in time for the day of hearts, Twilight fans got some more news over at MTV. The site confirmed a whole collection of new cast members that have been added to the production, and conveniently, they also offer the characters they will play, and a little bit about them. Since this is a Catherine Hardwicke pic, it's not surprising to see Nikki Reed leading the list. She had her co-debut with Hardwicke in Thirteen, and also popped up in Lords of Dogtown. Beyond Reed, there's also Rachelle Lefevre (Suffering Man's Charity), Cam Cigandet (The O.C.), and Michael Welch (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane).

The film, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling young adult book, is about a teen named Isabella (Kristen Stewart) who falls for a vampire named Edward (Robert Pattinson). Reed, at 19, will play a 90-year-old vampire called Rosalie Hale, who looks 18 -- she's a close friend of Edward's and "rolls into Forks High School in the family's silver Volvo, sits with the Cullen clan in the cafeteria, and shares a complicated love story with Emmett and Edward." Okay, it's got to be boring and sucky to be that old and still have to go to high school -- especially when you look old enough to pass as someone who graduated.

According to Jewish folklore (or at least according to a really scary story my rabbi once told me), a "dybbuk" is an angry, undead spirit that possesses a human being. So perhaps writer / director David S. Goyer pitched this concept to his new Plantium Dunes bosses as "Poltergeist meets The Exorcist, only Jewish." Seems unlikely he'd start the meeting with "Hey, anyone remember any ghost stories they once heard in Hebrew school?"

Either way, The Hollywood Reporter is (ahem) reporting that Goyer and three actors have signed on to an as-yet-untitled "supernatural thriller" about "a 19-year-old girl who is haunted by a dybbuk, the soul of a dead person barred from heaven, in the form of a young boy who perished in Auschwitz." (Glad to see the Holocaust can act as inspiration for a Platinum Dunes supernatural thriller.) The young lady will be played by Odette Yustman, who is currently wowing audiences as "that really hot girl who looks a little like Jennifer Connelly" in Cloverfield. Also on board is the always-busy Gary Oldman as a "spiritual specialist" and someone called Cam Gigandet as the hot girl's boyfriend.

Fingers crossed on this project. If there's anything lamer than a flat PG-13 thriller, it's probably a flat PG-13 thriller that invokes memories of Auschwitz. Still, after flicks like Dark City, Blade and Batman Begins, DSG has earned some benefit of the doubt by now. Production begins a few weeks from now in Chicago.