Wheelman is an action-adventure title about an expert driver who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past.Paramount and MTV Films have scooped up the rights from Midway, which is currently developing the game for Xbox 360 and PS3, with a budget of a little over $15 million.
Last year MTV and Midway signed a 3 game deal to jointly sell in-game advertising and collaborate on soundtrack development, so The Wheelman will see MTV produce the game's soundtrack and also pitch in with martketing, sell advertisement within the game. First game was L.A Rush and "The Wheelman" was already selected to be the second game in that deal, but as Diesel came aboard and MTV execs saw initial work on the game, they decided to go a step further and develop it as a film.The Wheelman video game's story will be a prequel to the film, with some crossover between the two.
"We saw Vin's dedication to the 'Riddick' game and thought this would be a great vehicle for him," said Midway CEO David ZuckerDavid Zucker.
"It was a very coordinated effort," said MTV Films exec VP David Gale. Diesel and producing partner Samantha Vincent "had the foresight and idea of making a cinematic game and a movie that could be synergistically developed."
Midway and Paramount/MTV are both majority owned by Sumner Redstone, and they are already working together on several other projects. Paramount is developing Midway games "The Suffering" and "Area 51" and also has "Fear and Respect," which John Singleton started developing for Midway, through the game has been delayed and is not currently scheduled for release.
Rich Wilkes, who worked with Diesel on "XXX," is slated to write the script for the project. Diesel’s Tigon Films and MTV Films plan to produce the film, and Paramount Pictures intends to release it. Overseeing the film for MTV Films will be David Gale, Executive Vice President, Loretha Jones, Senior Vice President of Development and Jason Weiss, Senior Director of Development. Overseeing for Paramount will be Dan Levine, Senior Vice President Production, Matt Jackson, Vice President Production and Eben Davidson, Director Creative Affairs. Overseeing for Diesel's Tigon Studios will be Samantha Vincent, Vice President and Coz Lazouras, Product Development Executive.
More articles about Wheelman