Eva Longoria, famous for her acting and filmmaking and most recently visible to the fan community for her turn in Dora the Explorer, will direct an upcoming biopic based on the life of Richard Montanez, the son of an immigrant and former janitor at Frito-Lay who revitalized the company’s flagging product line by inventing Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The film, titled Flamin’ Hot, landed with Longoria after Fox Searchlight shopped it around to numerous candidates. DeVon Franklin, who Deadline says was impressed by Longoria’s pitch, will produce the film through Franklin Entertainment, and it will be distributed by Fox Searchlight.
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Here’s how they explain the film: “…the inspiring story of Richard and Judy Montanez. Richard rose from humble beginnings to achieve the American Dream: The son of a Mexican immigrant, Richard was a janitor at Frito-Lay when he came up with the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. His creation, inspired by the flavors of his community, revitalized the company and disrupted the food industry, creating a pop culture phenomenon that continues today.”
There was an almost immediate blowback on social media as fans read Deadline’s headline about the movie and assumed it was a LEGO Movie-style riff on the Cheetos brand, wondering why Longoria would be interested. It seems to have settled down after people realized what the movie was actually about.
Lewis Colick, who previously wrote Charlie St. Cloud and October Sky, wrote the screenplay. Longoria has a huge amount of stuff on her plate, including directing 24/7 from Universal, which will star Longoria with Kerry Washington. She is also producing My Daughter’s Quinceañera at Universal, and developing a number of TV and film projects including HBO’s A Class Apart.
The story also says that Franklin Entertainment is developing a biopic about gospel musician and choir director Kirk Franklin, and a remake of the 1975 film Cooley High.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is in theaters now. The movie stars Isabela Moner (Dora), Eva Longoria (Elena), Temuera Morrison (Powell), Jeffrey Wahlberg (Diego), Benicio Del Toro (Swiper), Michael Pena (Dora’s Father), Pia Miller (Diego’s Mother), Q’orianka Kilcher (Inca Princess Kawillaka), Eugenio Derbez (Alejandro Gutierrez), Adriana Barraza (Abuela Valerie), and Madeleine Madden (Sammy).
