'Wheelman' Video Game to Hit Big Screen

Vin Diesel will get behind the wheel, again

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

Fresh off the success of the fourth Fast & Furious movie, 41-year-old Vin Diesel will soon portray Milo Burik in a live action film adaptation of the multi-platform video game Wheelman (Ubisoft/ Midway Games). Paramount Pictures has pushed the project into high gear following Furious' box office success.

A digitalized version of the action star already appears in the top-rated game (released March 2009), and appears on its cover as well, reading Vin Diesel: Wheelman, which he also produced.

Set in the city of (or similar to) Barcelona, Spain, the game has Burik as a man who comes out of retirement in order to rescue a woman from his past. The development of the film had actually been announced back in February 2006, at the same time a game effort was committed.

Oscar-nominated director John Singleton (2 Fast 2 Furious) is set to helm the project, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) as co-producer (alongside Diesel and partner Samantha Vincent), and Rich Wilkes (xXx) as screenwriter. Wilkes' script was later reworked by Oliver Butcher (Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde) and Stephen Cornwell (Killing Streets).

Filming on Wheelman has not yet begun, and a release date is still unavailable. Diesel is also currently in the production stages of sequels to the xXx (2002) and Chronicles of Riddick (2004) franchises.