Vin Diesel to star as The Machine

The giant financial success – and inevitable Oscar victories – of Fast and Furious Five has resurrected Vin Diesel‘s once stagnant career. According to Deadline, no-longer-bankrupt studio MGM has set up a starring vehicle for Diesel entitled The Machine.

In the film – hoped to be the first in a series – Diesel will star as “a human-like machine created in secrecy by the Pentagon to be the world’s first ultimate weapon”. The Machine is discovered and reactivated 20 years later by an unsuspecting kid, who becomes his friend and companion. The tone of the project is supposedly similar to The Iron Giant, the brilliant – and very similar sounding – animated film that Diesel lent his voice to in 1998.

Diesel will also produce alongside screenwriters Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (of Reno 911 and The State fame).

Discuss: Glad to see Diesel return to the limelight, or is this resurgence more of a curse than a blessing?