“Hooters: The Movie” Is in the Works, For Some Reason

So, the corporate-biopic well hasn’t run dry: Hooters: The Movie is officially in development, and no, that isn’t a headline from The Onion.

According to Deadline, which broke the news, the film is being independently produced by the restaurant chain’s original founding partners. Jon Rosenbaum (Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls, Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp) is directing from a script by Ed Droste, Phil Olson, and Chuck Melcher. Casting is underway, led by Lisa London and Catherine Stroud.

The plot follows Ted and Lenny, two lifelong friends from small-town Iowa who accidentally launch a national restaurant empire after Ted becomes infatuated with a woman named Diane, whom he spots in a spring break commercial. Determined to track her down, Ted talks a reluctant Lenny into a road trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida, and Diane, per the official synopsis, ends up becoming the very first Hooters Girl. It’s not the only unlikely property getting the big-screen treatment this year, either. Roblox’s own 99 Nights in the Forest is heading down a similar path.

Ted, Lenny, and the Origin of an Empire

Droste, one of Hooters’ six original founders and a producer on the film, told Complex the project captures “some guys who didn’t know what we were doing.” It arrives less than a year after Hooters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which adds an odd bit of timing to a movie celebrating how the chain got started in the first place.

London told ComingSoon.net she’s “very excited to find amazing talent for this iconic story,” while Stroud described it as a classic American success story about two unsuspecting heroes.

Hooters was founded in October 1983 in Clearwater, Florida, and production is expected to begin this November in the same part of the state. For UK readers keeping score, the chain’s only outpost across the pond sits on London Road in Nottingham, inside the Hicking Building, a fair distance from Clearwater Beach. Sometimes a passion project takes decades to get made, as with King Conan. Other times, apparently, it just takes a bankruptcy filing.

No release date has been set, but with cameras expected to roll this November, Ted and Lenny’s story won’t stay untold for long. We’ll keep you posted on updates about Hooters: The Movie as the project develops.