The Hot Wheels movie now has a director.  Heat Vision reports that Legendary Pictures has tapped prestigious second-unit director and stunt coordinator Simon Crane to take the helm of Hot Wheels, which is based on the Mattel toy line of the same name.  The story takes place after a dangerous military device has fallen into the hands of a criminal, which forces a washed-up Illinois State Trooper to fight the man his father once put behind bars.  How this ties into cars is unknown, but with the Fast & Furious franchise making serious money on its fifth and sixth entries and a Need for Speed film poised to hit theaters next year, Legendary is clearly game to get in on the car craze.

Crane’s resume as a second-unit director includes work on films like World War Z, Troy, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, so he has plenty of experience with blockbuster filmmaking.  Art Marcum and Matt Holloway wrote the initial script for this iteration of Hot Wheels, but Legendary has tapped Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show) to do a rewrite.  Joe Roth (Alice in Wonderland) is producing.