For a movie about fast cars, Hot Wheels sure is taking its sweet time getting to the screen.
Way back in 2013, Mattel had supposedly found a director to make a movie based on the iconic brand of toy cars. But that movie didn’t happen. In 2016, Justin Lin was supposed to make a Hot Wheels movie. He was a great choice; the guy directed a whole bunch of Fast & Furious movies. Did he make a Hot Wheels film? I sure don’t remember one!
Now J.J. Abrams and his Bad Robot production company will be the latest filmmakers to try to get a Hot Wheels movie off the starting line. According to the Mattel press release, Abrams, Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. are now working on “a live-action motion picture featuring the iconic and timeless toy racing car.” They didn’t offer any details about the plot but they called it a “high-throttle action film” that “will bring to life this beloved, multi-generational franchise and showcase some of the world’s hottest and sleekest cars, monster trucks and motorcycles.”
Here was how Hannah Minghella, Bad Robot’s President of Motion Pictures, described the project.
Before Hot Wheels became the global household name it is today, it was the dream of Elliot Handler, who was inventing and building toy cars at home in his Southern California garage. It’s that imagination, passion, and risk-taking spirit that we want to capture in this film.
The problem with a Hot Wheels movie, as is so often the case with toy movies, is that Hot Wheels are popular but they have no established story or character. They’re just cars! That could explain why despite its name recognition, no one’s ever pulled a Hot Wheels movie off; you actually have to write the darn thing and figure out a way to get that famous Hot Wheels orange ramp into the script somewhere. We’ll see what Bad Robot comes up with.
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