If you feel like Hollywood will make movies about anything these days, you might be right as it turns out that Flamin' Hot Cheetos is now getting its own movie. No, this isn't a sequel to Sausage Party where anthropomorphic snack food has to defend the world against non-spicy foods. It's actually a biopic about the man who had the idea for Flamin' Hot Cheetos, who, to be fair, has a pretty interesting story to tell, since he started his career with the Frito Lay company at the bottom, as in cleaning the floors.
Richard Montanez is the man who came up the concept for Flamin Hot Cheetos, something he did while a janitor at one of Frito Lay's Southern California locations. The snack food wasn't just a success, it was a revolution, which transformed Montanez from a janitor into a corporate executive. That's a pretty impressive turn around for a single idea, which does help to explain why somebody would want to turn this into a movie. Right now I certainly want to see how that happened.
According to Variety, Fox Searchlight picked up the project in a highly competitive sale, so there was a lot of interest in the inventor of the Flamin' Hot Cheeto.The pitch was put together by Richard Montanez himself along with producer DeVon Franklin and Lewis Colick, who will write the screenplay. Colick previously wrote October Sky and Ladder 49.
As much as it still sounds weird to say they're making a movie about the guy who invented the Flamin' Hot Cheeto, one has to admit the rags to riches story sounds like an interesting one. The son of immigrants, Richard Montanez was a grape picker and a janitor before becoming a high-powered executive. We're guessing it wasn't as simple as grabbing the company President on his way out the door and saying "hey, I've got an idea" so the rest of the story is probably an interesting one. It either includes a bunch of very open people who were willing to let a janitor become an executive, or it includes a well thought out plan that made sure that nothing else was going to be able to happen. All enhanced with some Hollywood movie magic, of course. We're sure if the story doesn't actually include enough drama, some will be added as necessary.
With the project just being picked up, it will be years before a movie actually materializes. It won't be all that surprising when it does, however. Hollywood loves a good underdog story and while this one may come from an unlikely place, it certainly is that. If you want to keep up to date on the Flamin' Hot Cheeto story, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
