FAST & FURIOUS Helmer Justin Lin Will Direct Legendary's HOT WHEELS Movie

Justin Lin, the man who rescued the Fast & Furious franchise from the brink of death and turned it into one of the biggest movie series in the world, is getting in the driver's seat for a different car-themed film.

THR reports that Lin, who most recently directed Star Trek Beyond, has signed a deal to develop, produce, and direct Hot Wheels for Legendary Entertainment, a movie based on the beloved toy line. This film has been in the works since 2003, with directors like Simon Crane and McG pulling in and then peeling out in recent years. Lin seems like an obvious natural fit to direct the four-wheeled action here, though the storyline remains to be seen; a new writer will be hired soon to take a crack at a script.

One quick thing from THR's report that I thought was worth mentioning: a statistic they quote about the prevalence of Hot Wheels toys in the world:

Hot Wheels is one of the world’s biggest toy brands, with Mattel claiming that it is the best-selling toy in the world, with more than 5 billion toy cars produced since 1968. Mattel creates nine million cars every week and sells 10 every second.

Ten every second! That's unfathomable! Wow. Anyway, we'll see if that kind of global brand recognition alone will be enough to get butts in seats for this movie, or if they'll actually take the novel approach of attempting to infuse it with a strong story and give it compelling characters.