Eva Longoria to Direct Biopic About Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Creator

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Eva Longoria will direct Fox Searchlight’s “Flamin’ Hot,” a biopic about the man who created the spicy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

Variety first reported in February, 2018, that Searchlight and DeVon Franklin were set to produce the film “Flamin’ Hot,” which will tell the true story of Richard Montanez, who rose from humble beginnings to being a wildly successful businessman when he created a food phenomenon — Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

The film will follow Montanez, the son of an immigrant, who grew up as a migrant farm worker picking grapes in the fields of Southern California before becoming a janitor at Frito-Lay. While working at the company, Montanez came up with the idea to create Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, transforming the Frito-Lay brand into a pop culture phenomenon and creating a wildly popular category of crunchy snacks.

Longoria will direct from a script by Charlie St. Cloud and “October Sky” writer Lewis Colick. Zahra Phillips is overseeing the project for Franklin Entertainment, while Taylor Friedman will oversee for Searchlight. Samuel Rodriguez is the executive producer.

Longoria is also attached to direct and produce Universal’s “24/7,” in which she stars with Kerry Washington. She is also producing “My Daughter’s Quinceañera” at Universal and stars in Paramount’s “Dora the Explorer.”

Longoria is repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Montanez is repped by Paradigm and Colick is repped by Paradigm and Industry Entertainment. The news was first reported by Deadline.