The screenwriter of a film about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos has had to defend the project in the wake of a Los Angeles Times report challenging the central character’s claim to have invented the product.
Richard Montanez has been claiming credit for creating the chile-covered Cheeto flavour for years in books, interviews and motivational speeches. This summer a film is slated to shoot with actress-turned-filmmaker Eva Longoria directing the movie based on Montanez’s life story.
However the report on Sunday challenged key elements of his rags-to-riches story, saying he didn’t invent the product according to “interviews with more than a dozen former Frito-Lay employees, the archival record and Frito-Lay itself.” In a statement to the outlet, Frito-Lay says:
“None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin’ Hot test market. We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard was not involved in any capacity in the test market.
That doesn’t mean we don’t celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend…. We value Richard’s many contributions to our company, especially his insights into Hispanic consumers, but we do not credit the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or any Flamin’ Hot products to him.”
Instead, they say the snack was the creation of “a team of hotshot snack food professionals” at Frito-Lay’s corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas starting in 1989 where a junior employee named Lynne Greenfeld came up with the name and shepherded it into existence.
Producer DeVon Franklin (“Miracles From Heaven”) has been developing the film project at Searchlight for several years with writer Lewis Colick (“Ladder 49”) involved from the initial pitch stage.
Speaking with Variety, Colick took aim at the Times’ story and defended the upcoming film and its approach to the story:
“[It’s] a hit job on a really fine upstanding individual who’s an inspiration to the Latino community for justifiable reasons… Did Richard embellish a little bit? Was his memory faulty here or there? Who knows. The truth is the product…
I think enough of the story is true. The heart and soul and spirit of the story is true. He is a guy who should remain the face of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. We’re not in the documentary business. I’ve written a lot of true stories, like ‘October Sky’. Not every single thing in the story is exactly true. I always stand behind the essence of the story.”
Colick noted that Frito-Lay had co-operated in the production, giving him and Franklin a tour of the Rancho Cucamonga facility where Montanez worked. The Times report indicates Frito-Lay alerted the film’s producers to problems with Montanez’s story in 2019, but Colick indicates he never heard about that.
Montanez himself tells the trade: “All I can tell you is what I did. All I have is my history, what I did in my kitchen.” Colick adds: “It’s just a great story. For it to be sullied this way, it’s just a shame.”
