Gran Turismo movie gets a release date, director, and plot

An extended-gestating movie primarily based on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo sequence of racing video games seems to be prefer it’s lastly occurring. Sony Footage has introduced a launched date of Aug. 11, 2023 for the movie, which is known as merely Gran Turismo and is about to be directed by District 9’s Neill Blomkamp.

Based on Deadline, Sony additionally equipped a brand new logline outlining the movie’s plot: “Primarily based on a real story, the movie is the final word want success story of a teenage Gran Turismo participant whose gaming expertise received a sequence of Nissan competitions to develop into an precise skilled race automotive driver.”

If that sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of a Gran Turismo movie with this foundation has been mentioned earlier than — practically 9 years in the past. It was confirmed to be in improvement in 2013, and Gran Turismo recreation director Kazunori Yamauchi commented then that it might be primarily based on the story of Lucas Ordonez, a Spanish driver who graduated from Gran Turismo and Nissan’s GT Academy competitors to real-life racing at Le Mans and in GT sequence.

Certainly, Ordonez isn’t the one racer to comply with this path. Brit Jann Mardenborough received GT Academy just a few years after Ordonez, and went on to take pleasure in an extended racing profession, ending up within the Tremendous GT championship in Japan.

So, as corny because the plot might sound, it’s very credible, because the strains between digital and actual motorsport proceed to blur. Turkish racer Cem Bolukbasi lately moved from Formulation One’s esports sequence to a full season in F2, whereas F1 stars like Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are generally known as fierce opponents on iRacing.

If this film has been languishing on Sony’s to-do checklist for therefore lengthy, how come it lastly has the momentum to get made? For one factor, the PlayStation Productions arm that’s targeted on turning Sony’s online game properties into movies simply had a decent-sized hit with Uncharted, and Sony might be eager to mine this seam additional.

For an additional, motorsports motion pictures are out of the blue in vogue in Hollywood, after Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries dramatically raised consciousness of F1, within the U.S. particularly. Apple lately sealed a deal to supply a F1 film starring Brad Pitt and directed by Prime Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski. In the meantime, Michael Mann has been ready revive his ardour undertaking Ferrari, a biopic starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. Sony is unquestionably seeking to be part of this pattern with Gran Turismo.

This might be Blomkamp’s first online game adaptation — surprisingly, maybe. The South African director is thought to like video video games, and within the 2000s was connected to make an ill-fated movie adaptation of Halo, to be produced by Peter Jackson.