The first trailer for Eva Longoria’s directorial debut, Flaming hotrevealed Jesse Garcia who plays Richard Montañez, a go-getter Mexican-American who claims in real life that he went from working as a janitor at Frito-Lay to inventing the successful Flamin’ Hot Cheetos snack product.
“Spicy? Look, that’s how I got here,” Montanez says at one point as the Searchlight Pictures teaser recalls his youthful past in gangs and committing petty crimes, before Longoria’s rags-to-riches story lands him the salty Cheetos- snack for Fritos-Lay.
The trailer, which Garcia narrates, shows the breakthrough moment when he discovers that adding chili seasoning to Cheetos will give the snack product a delicious heat and potentially reach a much wider U.S. market. “I have an idea. It’s a spicy chip. It’s going to change everything,” Montañez tells his skeptical floor manager, played by Matt Walsh, in the trailer.
Other early naysayers include Roger Enrico, CEO of Frito-Lay, played by Tony Shalhoub, who interrogates Montañez on a phone call, “And you’re a janitor?” Ultimately, the tenacious inventor channeling his Mexican-American heritage created the iconic Flamin’ Hot Cheetos snack that disrupted the food industry and became a global pop culture phenomenon.
Flaming hot also stars Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert, Emilio Rivera, Pepe Serna, Bobby Soto, Jimmy Gonzales, Brice Gonzalez, Vanessa Martinez, Fabian Alomar, Mario Ponce and Hunter Jones.
Searchlight is planning a simultaneous release on Hulu and Disney+ on June 9.
