J.J. Abrams Says His Hot Wheels Movie Will Be ‘Grounded and Gritty’

Producer J.J. Abrams is gassing up the Hot Wheels movie with some new hype, teasing the approach that he’s taking with the upcoming film. For years, there have been plans to develop a Hot Wheels film, and the project was finally put into gear by Mattel earlier this year. It was reported that the toy company was partnering up with Warner Bros. and Abrams’ Bad Robot to develop a live-action Hot Wheels film. While there have been video games and animated projects in the franchise, this will be the first live-action adaptation of the popular line of toy cars.

A new report from The New Yorker touches on the many gestating film projects that are in development based on Mattel products. Among them is a new update on Hot Wheels, with Abrams first referencing the years-long process it has taken to get to where he finally figured out the right approach to take with the movie. The producer says that the filmmakers have finally cracked that code, coming up with a story that’s going to be “worthy” of the Hot Wheels brand.

As Abrams explains:

“For a long time, we were talking to Mattel about Hot Wheels, and we couldn’t quite find the thing that clicked, that made it worthy of what Hot Wheels—that title—deserved. Then we came up with something… emotional and grounded and gritty.”

Back in 2017, it was reported that Jeremy Renner would star in the Hot Wheels film, but it doesn’t appear that he’s still attached to the project. What’s known is that the screenplay comes from Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, the team behind the 2017 Black List script Strongman. They also sold a sci-fi spec script to Netflix about a group of AI robots marooned on Mars who turn on one another while setting up a colony for humans.

Related: Hot Wheels Live-Action Adaptation Moves Forward

Many Mattel Projects Are Getting Movies

The Mattel movie madness will begin with the release of Barbie, coming to theaters on July 21. If it does as well as it’s projected to, the film will be a huge success, and that can only mean that the other planned films based on Mattel products and brands will be following soon enough. Besides Hot Wheels and Barbie, other Mattel brands soon to get the big-screen treatment include Barney, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Magic 8 Ball, Barney, Uno, View-Master, Polly Pocket, Matchbox, American Girl, Major Matt Mason, and more.

While some of these will be imagined as more “mature” films for adult viewers, we shouldn’t expect for them all to be. Mattel Films’ Kevin McKeon has stressed that what’s most important is to just make a good movie, and it will sometimes result in a film geared more for adult audiences.

“Thomas the Tank Engine isn’t going on a bender with his friends,” McKeon explained. “Our top priority is to make really good movies—movies that matter, and that make a cultural footprint. Our second priority is to make sure that we do no disservice to the brands.”

The Hot Wheels movie doesn’t have a release date at this time.