The cast that’s already been culled for Machete Kills is, frankly, probably far better than the forthcoming movie. Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Demián Bichir, Mel Gibson, Amber Heard, and Sofia Vergara have been settled into the sequel for varying amounts of time, but Robert Rodriguez may have one big, final spot to fill — if his own star is to be believed.

When talking to Moviehole, Trejo announced that Zoe Saldana — who’s, fittingly, one of the only modern female action stars — is just one of the many ladies in Rodriguez‘s lineup. Now, although this isn’t something that’s even been hinted at over the course of Machete Kills‘ long casting process, it’s not entirely likely the film’s own lead would speak out of turn and, at the same time, make some kind of erroneous claim. This should be cleared up pretty quickly. [FirstShowing]

There are actually a couple of things that remain to be confirmed in this film’s circle, as a matter of fact. Rodriguez spoke to Empire about the film’s plot and claimed that a few things about our pre-existing information didn’t quite add up. (We had heard that Machete was hired by the U.S. government to kill an arms dealer [Mel Gibson] who was hoping to deploy missiles.) If you ask him, it’s “all fake” — but this can count for something:

“Machete is recruited by the President, that’s true, but there’s no cartel leader and the weapon in space is just one of our early story ideas. That said, there is still a space element, for sure. We’ve given the character a much bigger playground. It’s going to be like a James Bond movie, with a Bond-style villain.”

A much smaller (and equally opaque) casting item has come from Deadline, who say that relative unknown Alycia Debnam-Carey is the first actor to sign for a currently-untitled tornado film. Directed by Steve Quale — a fresh face who cut his teeth by working with James Cameron on Titanic and Avatar — it was once known as Category 6, and is a Cloverfield-like found footage tale of high school kids who try to survive a devastating storm; the title of the film lets you know this is an especially hectic natural disaster. Debnam-Carey‘s part will be that of the female protagonist.

Are you hoping to see Saldana join Machete? Is a found footage storm movie something with any potential?