Midway have confirmed a release date for The Wheelman, a collaborative development effort between Midway Newcastle and Vin Diesel’s own Tigon Studios.

The Wheelman is designed to be a blockbuster car chase racing game, taking its cues from classic Hollywood car chases, aiming to deliver powerful cinematic moments to drive the game’s storyline forward. You’ll either be using your car to ram your enemies off of the road, or an array of weaponry to shoot on the go, or, if the need takes you, you can get out the car for some on-foot action, with all of your exploits set in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Vin Diesel said of the game:

“We’re designing Wheelman to play like a Hollywood blockbuster. Playing this game will be just like taking control of the greatest car chases from feature films, except this time you’re in the driver’s seat.”

Midway executive vice president Martin Spiess assured gamers of their good intentions, “Featuring Vin Diesel and set in Barcelona, Wheelman is a title with enormous sales potential. We’re making a multi-million dollar marketing investment to make sure that gamers around the world are ready when Wheelman goes on sale worldwide, which we have planned for February 2009.”

The Wheelman has a release date of February 20th next year on Xbox 360 and PS3, with a movie also in the works. You can check out some screenshots and a recent trailer to get re-acquainted below: