“I know I don’t look it, but I got a Ph.D.,” Richard Montañez tells his new supervisor at the Frito-Lay plant. After a doubting “Hmm?” from the boss, he continues, “I’m poor, hungry and determined, sir.”
Replies the button-down manager, “OK, I can see you’re gonna be a weird one.”
Welcome to the first trailer for Flamin’ Hot, director Eva Longoria’s tale of a janitor who channeled his Mexican-American heritage and upbringing into an idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, which disrupted the food industry and became a pop culture phenomenon. As Montañez says in the trailer, “I’m the guy who helped bring the world the most popular snack it’s ever seen.”
Have a look above.
Layoffs are hitting the PepsiCo snack-food giant because “Frito-Lay isn’t getting enough orders to keep the factory open,” the workers are told. But Montañez has the answer: “It’s a spicy chip. It’s gonna change everything.” Doubts converge among the higher-ups — “Why are we wasting time on this janitor’s crazy idea?” — but he starts to convincing.
Talking to roomful of execs, Montañez says, “If we knew there was a product out there for us, we’d say, ‘Take all our money, cabrones!” A mini-montage later, he admits, “I got a little ‘hood there at the end, but …”
Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert, Emilio Rivera, Tony Shalhoub, Matt Walsh, Pepe Serna, Bobby Soto, Jimmy Gonzales, Brice Gonzalez, Vanessa Martinez, Fabian Alomar, Mario Ponce, Hunter Jones also star in the Searchlight Pictures film, which will be the first pic to hit both Disney+ and Hulu in its streaming debut, on June 9.
