'Hot Wheels' Movie Revs Up

If Ridley Scott can make a movie out of Monopoly and if a comedic ensemble version of the board game Clue can still hold up reasonably well a quarter century later and if Transformers can be Transformers, why can't we have a movie about Hot Wheels? That's exactly what Warner Bros. has asked itself, and Variety reports that the the studio is working with Mattel on a film version of the die-cast cars, with Joel Silver on board to produce the action flick. The script - and how you even get to the point of a concept from something as nebulous as "these cars are cool" is quite an achievement - will be written by Matt Nix (Burn Notice). About all we know comes from Mattel's Barry Waldo: "We won't have the cars talk. That would be off brand position for us. It won't be another Knight Rider, I promise that." Waldo stresses that one of the film's goals is to be "relevant for kids." And before you ask what's next, it's very likely a big screen, live-action Barbie movie. Here's your big break, Heidi Montag.