We’ve got a couple of casting stories to report this afternoon.  First up, director Robert Rodriguez continues to fill out the cast for his sequel Machete Kills, and it appears that Amber Herd (The Rum Diary) will be taking on a femme fatale role.  Variety reports that Herd will play “a manipulative assassin code-named Miss San Antonio,” which I can only assume refers to her jaw-dropping beauty.  Dangerous beauty, apparently.  Danny Trejo is returning as the titular murderous Mexican, with Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez reprising their roles from the first film as well.  As for newcomers, Mel Gibson and Demian Bichir are poised to join the franchise’s second outing.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding the drag-racing biopic Snake & Mongoose.

Additionally, ER and Falling Skies star Noah Wyle has joined the cast of the racing biopic Snake & Mongoose.  Jesse Williams and Richard Blake star as drag racers Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen, respectively, and the film centers on the longtime friendship and rivalry between the two.

Variety reports that Wyle will play Arthur Spear, the executive of Mattel, Inc. in the 1970s who decides to put its new Hot Wheels logo on Prudhomme’s and McEwen’s dragsters, thus being the world’s first non-automotive sponsor in a racing sport.  Commercial director Wayne Holloway will be making his feature directorial debut on the project, based on a script he co-wrote with Alan Paradise.