Remember Hot Wheels? They were those little toy cars that you could zoom around on orange loop-de-loop tracks? Did you ever wonder: what’s going on in the heads of those drivers? What are their trials and tribulations like? Do they have families? Tragic backstories? Personal vendettas? Well, it looks like you’re going to find out. Hot Wheels is a movie that is happening.
Snark aside, there is some good news to be had. Justin Lin (Star Trek Beyond, Fast Five) is in the director’s chair. Lin has proven himself a professional when it comes to blockbuster action, particularly with his last film, Star Trek Beyond. That film was the best in its rebooted series, so it’s possible Lin can spin some straw into gold with Hot Wheels.
There’s Already A Great Hot Wheels Movie…
The best possible thing to draw inspiration from would be the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer. That film was able to take a shallow property and embrace that shallowness to create something spectacular. The cartoon action and hyperkinetic energy of Speed Racer is genuinely breathtaking. If we’re going to live in a world where a Hot Wheels movie exists, there’s no better blueprint than Speed Racer.
Seeing as there isn’t a whole lot of lore to draw upon when it comes to Hot Wheels, it will be interesting to see what kind of story develops around the property. Hopefully, Lin will keep things bombastic and silly. Hot Wheels isn’t the kind of universe where super serious drama needs to take place.
No word on when the film will go in front of cameras, but we’ll keep our feelers out for this one. You know they have to have those bright orange ramps in the movie. Not having that would be like not having lightsabers in a Star Wars movie. …Oh, I guess Rogue One won’t have lightsabers. You know what I mean.
I wonder if the Slime-inator will make an appearance…
