Mattel and Warner Bros. Pictures on Monday announced plans for a Hot Wheels movie that's set to bring the tiny toy cars to the big screen. The movie will be produced by J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company, which was responsible for the most recent incarnations of the "Star Trek," "Star Wars," and "Mission: Impossible" movie franchises.
The movie will "showcase some of the world's hottest and sleekest cars, monster trucks, and motorcycles," according to a statement from Mattel, the toy company responsible for the Hot Wheels line. That doesn't provide much of an indication about how a toy-car brand will translate into a movie, but the real cars the toys are based on provide plenty of potential source material.
The "Fast and Furious" franchise has shown that cars and racing can serve as a jumping off point to more elaborate action movies, and the "Need for Speed" video game franchise inspired a 2014 movie. The latter wasn't exactly a hit, admittedly, showing that it takes more than a recognizable brand name to make a good movie.
Mattel and Warner Bros. also didn't announce a launch date for the movie. The two companies already plan to release a Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie in 2023, with movies based on several other Mattel toy properties planned after that. The list includes everything from American Girl and Masters of the Universe to Uno and Magic 8 Ball.
If Mattel is going to try to turn its toys into movies, it might as well include Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels at least has the potential for cool cars and action scenes. It's unlikely that we'll get that out of the Magic 8 Ball movie.