Paramount Pictures wants to keep Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel behind the wheel of a fast car where it seems they feel he belongs.
The studio has set John Singleton to direct a live-action adaptation of the Ubisoft video game Wheelman. Diesel is the main character of the game, which launched last month, as well as its producer.
Diesel will play an expert driver who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past.
Rich Wilkes wrote the script with the writing team of Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell providing a rewrite.
Paramount first got involved in the project in 2006; at the time, the partnership was hailed as one of the biggest between a video game publisher and a studio. Sumner Redstone owned both Midway Games and Paramount, and the plan was to launch the Wheelman game and movie in close proximity. Redstone unloaded his 87% stake in Midway late last year in a debt restructuring move, and the video game moved to Ubisoft.
Singleton is no stranger to car chase films, having directed 2 Fast 2 Furious, the sequel that Diesel skipped out on.
source: Variety
