After over 17 years of resting in development hell, the film adaptation of Mattel’s long-running toy line Hot Wheels is finally gaining some ground as Warner Bros. has tapped rising scribes Neil Widener and Gavin James to write the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Justin Lin (Star Trek Beyond, F9) would later sign on to direct but after four years of a lack of progress, it would once again die and have the rights revert to Mattel, with Robbie Brenner currently attached to produce the new project.
Plot details for the film are currently being kept close to the chest, but sources report that the story treatment the duo delivered to the studio was so effective it won them the gig ahead of “several more established players” who submitted spec scripts to the studio.
Legendary Entertainment would subsequently obtain the rights to the iconic car brand in June 2011 and were eyeing Simon Crane (Men in Black 3) and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) as the frontrunners for possible directors and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Morbius, Uncharted) set to pen the script with a Mission:Impossible and Fast Five tone.