Jon M. Chu is hot these days.
Fresh off the massive success of “Wicked: Part “One — a $756M global haul and 10 Oscar nominations to its name — the director has signed on to helm “Hot Wheels,” a live-action adaptation of Mattel’s toy car brand. Warner Bros. and Bad Robot are on board, with Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier (“They Cloned Tyrone,” “Creed II”) scripting (via Deadline)
Chu, now firmly in blockbuster territory, adds another project to his arsenal The film is said to be an adrenaline-fueled action movie that leans into the sleek car culture mythology of the brand, which has sold over 8 billion toy cars since launching in 1968.
No plot details yet, but the packaging screams IP spectacle—likely a Fast & Furious-lite for the PG-13 crowd.
This marks another collaboration between Chu, Warner Bros., and Abrams, who are also working together on “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”—an animated Dr. Seuss adaptation, due in 2028.
Chu’s plate is full: there’s also “Split Fiction” for Amazon MGM, starring Sydney Sweeney, his Britney Spears biopic, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and of course, “Wicked: For Good,” the second half of his Wicked saga, which Universal drops this November.
Mattel, meanwhile, continues to build its post-“Barbie” empire. In addition to “Hot Wheels,” the toy giant has more than a dozen films in development—“Polly Pocket,” “Barney,” “Bob the Builder,” “Thomas & Friends,” and “UNO” among them—as it tries to spin IP into gold with varying degrees of creative ambition.
As mentioned, Chu’s next film is the already-shot “Wicked: For Good.” He was once known as the director of 2018’s “Crazy Rich Asians.” His other credits include “Now You See Me 2,” “In the Heights,” “Jem and the Holograms” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.”