Wheelman is a 2009 Vin Diesel video game that was supposed to lead to a blockbuster movie franchise, but here’s why it wasn’t meant to be.
helmsman was once tipped to be a major new action movie franchise for Vin Diesel, but here’s why it never happened. Diesel had a weird relationship with franchises, famous outing 2 Fast 2 Furious as it was feared that an inferior sequel would harm the original’s chances of becoming a “American classic.” He later declined to return as Xander Cage for the 2005 sequel. State of the Union for the same reason, although he took over the titular convict for 2004 The Chronicles of Riddick. His policy without follow-up, however, led to a few lean years in the mid-2000s.
The Chronicles of Riddick underperformed, while films such as find me guilty and Babylon AD also did little business. Diesel changed his mind about the 2009 sequels fast furious movie, and after that entry was a smash hit, it helped make the saga one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time. He applied this formula to the well-titled The return of Alex Cage in 2017 and attempted to create more IPs for himself with the likes of The Last Witch Hunter.
Diesel is also an avid gamer and founded Tigon Studios in the early 2000s to develop titles centered around him. This led to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which is rightfully considered one of the best movie licensing games of all time. Tigon was also behind helmsman, an action racing game where Diesel lent his voice and likeness to undercover CIA agent Milo Burik. The game was announced in 2006, alongside a helmsman the film’s sequel will be co-produced by Paramount and MTV Films. Diesel’s – which will lead a rock ’em sock ’em film – helmsman was set to be the start of a new multimedia series, but after three years of delaying the game, that plan began to fall apart.
During the development of helmsman, publisher Midway Games filed for bankruptcy, and it was clear from the final product that the game needed polish, especially for its sparsely populated open world. However, plans for a helmsman the film adaptation was still in preparation in 2009, with Variety reporting that Rich Wilkes wrote the screenplay and the late John Singleton signed on to direct. It looks like a unique case of cross-pollination, as Singleton directed 2 Fast 2 Furious – which has a forgotten prequel short – while Wilkes created Xander Cage.
the helmsman the game was met with mixed reviews and was not quite the GTA competitor for which it was billed. Milo from Diesel may or may not – this remains to be confirmed – have been paired with Tequila from Chow Yun-fat from Midway’s Strangulation for a dubbed game suite gun runner, although this title was canceled following the bankruptcy of Midways. As for the plans to shoot helmsman in an action movie franchise, nothing else was heard after 2009. Considering Diesel got very busy with the fast furious movies and helmsman The game didn’t meet with the warmest reception, presumably the film was shelved and, over time, forgotten. Between Dom Toretto and Xander Cage, Diesel had enough action movies focused on heroes who like high-speed chases, so helmsman fell by the wayside.
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