Hot Wheels Movie Taps Justin Lin as Director

Legendary Pictures is making a movie adaptation of the popular Hot Wheels toys, and word from THR is the studio has tapped Fast & Furious franchise alumni Justin Lin as a director. Lin most recently left the street racing world beyond and went sci-fi, directing the third installment in the Star Trek reboot franchise, Star Trek Beyond.

This is an interesting marriage of director and material, for several reasons. The biggest one is that Hot Wheels is a movie property that has stalled in development limbo for years, and Lin is a director who has made his name by coming into franchises that have run out of steam (no pun), and re-fueling them (pun) into successful and fun popcorn blockbusters. If anyone has a chance to take a toy brand (especially one about crazy fast cars) and make it into something worthy of a movie... that's better than Need for Speed... then Lin is probably it.

THR's report indicates that Lin will have an active hand in developing in producing the movie as well as directing; a new script and fresh ideas will be used, with a writer currently being sought. No word yet on what kind of concept Lin will be using; but until we do, we'll have plenty of ideas to discus with you in the Comicbook.com nation.

Meanwhile, Mattel has other movies in the works, with the first, Max Steel hitting theaters soon, while Sony's Master of The Universe movie continues to try and free itself from a similar development limbo.

Stay tuned for more Hot Wheels news as we get it.