Hooters Origin Story Headed to the Big Screen with 'Hooters: The Movie'

Six guys with no restaurant experience and a wild idea built an empire. Now their story — infatuation, a road trip and all — is getting the Hollywood treatment.

A movie about how Hooters came to be is officially happening, and the chicken-wing chain's original founding partners are producing it themselves, according to Deadline.

A corporate logo for a Hooters restaurant hangs on the wall of a building on April 1, 2025, in Lakeland, Florida | Source: Getty Images

The film, to be directed by Jon Rosenbaum, is being developed for the screen by writers Ed Droste, Phil Olson, and Chuck Melcher. Casting is now ongoing, led by Lisa London and Catherine Stroud.

“Hooters: The Movie” follows the story of lifelong friends from Iowa, Ted and Lenny, who accidentally built a national restaurant chain that the federal government threatens to take away.

Their story begins when Ted becomes infatuated with a woman named Diane from a spring break commercial. He convinces Lenny to go on a road trip to Clearwater Beach, Florida with him to track down Diane, who later becomes the very first Hooters Girl.

According to Droste, one of the co-founders and a producer on the film, it will be part comedy, part heart. “I think people are going to enjoy watching how we were really just some guys who didn’t know what we were doing, but had a great time doing it,” he told Deadline.

Hooters was founded in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida, by six businessmen who had zero restaurant experience. Now the brand has grown to more than 420 locations across 29 countries.

Filming is set to begin in November in the Tampa/Clearwater area, where the original Hooters restaurant opened more than 40 years ago.