Kelly Rowland joins ''Freddy Vs. Jason'' cast

When the long-awaited ”Freddy vs. Jason” starts shooting next month in Vancouver, the two classic horror-movie slashers will face off not just against each other, but against some terrified young people. One of them will be a woman with a reputation as a ”Survivor”: Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland. Cast earlier this week, she joins fellow frightened teen Brad Renfro (”Ghost World”) and, in his eighth go-round as Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund. And you thought her bandmate Beyoncé Knowles had some scary adversaries in Goldmember and Mini-Me.

Rowland, who is currently filming the video for ”Dilemma,” her duet with Nelly, tells MTV, ”I remember being on the set with Beyoncé on ‘Austin Powers’ and when she did ‘Carmen’ [MTV’s hip-hop version of the Bizet opera]. She was like, ‘You go act. I know you can do it.’ She always thought I had personality. I did a couple of TV spots [she had a brief recurring role on ABC’s ”The Hughleys”], and now that I’m doing a movie, I’m really excited.”

Englund says he’s excited to work with Rowland, too, though he tells MTV that he had another pop star in mind for another role in the movie. ”I thought there’d be a great role for Pink. I think this is just me talking about an idea I had. I don’t think that was anything that anybody ever acted on. But there is a role that seems like it was almost written for her.”

Hey, maybe she could still do it. MTV reports that no other roles for the film have been cast yet, not even Jason, even though Kane Hodder, who’s played the hockey-masked killer several times, has been mentioned for the part. ”Kane is a friend of mine and it makes this difficult,” Englund says. ”’Cause I think of Kane as Jason. Nobody does the killing machine like Kane.” However, he says, ”There may be a sequence in a flashback, we may see Jason young. Given that, they may be forced to hire somebody younger.”

Englund, by the way, is 53, and he says that, while there may be yet another sequel after this one, he can’t see playing Freddy forever. ”I don’t want to embarrass myself playing this guy. I don’t want to do ‘Freddy vs. Geritol.”’