Matchbox Movie Is Really Happening And It’s Got A Major Star
John Cena is slated to star in the upcoming Matchbox movie that is underway from Mattel Films. While no release date has been inked yet, the live-action feature film will eventually find its way into homes streaming through Apple. Scant details have been released at this point about the Apple Original Films production, but at this point, the movie will have director Sam Hargrave at the helm bringing the screenplay written by David Coggeshall and Jonathan Tropper to life.
John Cena Starring In The Matchbox Movie
Cena has been a rising film and television star, sometimes playing his World Wrestling Entertainment persona. Since 2000, Cena has seen his career outside the wrestling ring grow from bit parts in films and walk-on roles on television shows to substantial supporting characters in big-budget Hollywood productions.
Cena also has some voice acting credits under his belt, most notably for playing the character Rocksteady in the animated 2023 feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Earlier this year, the Matchbox movie star secured a co-starring role in the Peter Farrelly-directed comedy Ricky Stanicky.
From The Extraction Director
Just what Apple Original Films will do with the cars in the Matchbox movie isn’t yet clear. But the directing talents of Sam Hargrave are almost sure to weave in some great action sequences if the filmmaker stays true to the styles he utilized in all three Extraction movies that he created.
Aside from his duties as a filmmaker and bit-part actor, Hargrave has earned notoriety in Hollywood as one of its leading stunt performers, having practiced this craft in multiple films that include three The Hunger Games entries, Deadpool 2, Avengers: Endgame, and Captain America: Civil War.
Matchbox Cars
The Matchbox movie will be a live-action production based on the popular toys launched generations ago by Lensey Productions, a manufacturer later bought by Mattel. As the real-life story behind the toy goes, an English car lover named Jack Odell created the tiny, detailed cars so that his young daughter would be able to take toys to school with her. The girl’s primary school had a strict rule that outside toys would be permissible only if they were small enough to be tucked away inside of a matchbox.
Originated In England
The popularity of the cars soared at the school she attended and drove Odell into making more and more of the die-cast machines for his daughter’s schoolmates. Odell, along with Leslie Charles Smith and Rodney Smith, formed Lesney Products and started selling the cars all over England. As the decades passed by, other knockoffs tried to work their way into the Matchbox cars market, but the only one with any real commercial success was Mattel.
John Cena’s Wrestling Retirement
While John Cena still has dedicated time to the wrestling ring, the performer has only been a part-time figure in the popular televised sport since 2018. Cena announced his total retirement from wrestling this past July, revealing that 2025 will be the final time fans will be able to see him with the WWE. If all the hype that’s building around the Matchbox movie pans out, this could prove to be a great career move.
Sources: Deadline
