The world is about to get a movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and it’s not as cheesy as it sounds.
According to Variety, Fox Searchlight just announced that it will be putting out a film called Flamin’ Hot, which will tell the real story of how Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were made.
Now, if this were some run-of-the-mill narrative of team meetings and product pitches, it would be pretty boring — but the story behind Flamin’ Hot Cheetos is a rags-to-riches tale about a janitor who invented the product by accident.
Who’s bringing the popcorn? A movie about the origins of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, called Flamin’ Hot, is in development
Rags to riches: It will tell the story of Richard Montanez, a Mexican immigrant who worked as a Frito-Lay janitor when he came up with idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
DeVon Franklin will produce the movie, which will be written by Lewis Colick and executive-produced by Samuel Rodriguez.
It will tell the story of Richard Montanez, who emigrated to Southern California from Mexico as a kid.
After dropping out of school due in part to his struggle to learn English, Montanez worked on a farm where he picked grapes before snagging a job as a janitor at the Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga plant in 1976.
One day, he was eating a cup of corn when he had an idea.
‘I see the corn man adding butter, cheese and chile to the corn and thought what if I add chile to a Cheeto?’ he told Fox News in 2012.