Summary
- Gran Turismo is a popular racing video game franchise known for its realistic driving aspects, and the movie aims to capture this authentic experience.
- The release date of the Gran Turismo movie has been delayed by two weeks to August 25, 2023, due to industry strikes, but nationwide previews are planned to generate positive word of mouth.
- The movie tells the real-life underdog story of Jann Mardenborough, the youngest winner of the 2011 GT Academy, and features a talented cast led by David Harbour and Orlando Bloom. Neill Blomkamp directs with his signature gritty style.
The Gran Turismo video game franchise is getting a movie and so far, and here are all the Gran Turismo movie updates. Gran Turismo is a PlayStation racing simulation video game series developed by Polyphony Digital. After the first game was released in 1997 for the original PlayStation, the franchise proved to be a hit as Polyphony Digital then released seven more games in the main series as well as six secondary ones. Throughout its franchise history, Gran Turismo has remained a staple racing series in video games. Gran Turismo stands out for how realistic it makes the driving aspects of the game, and this is something that's key to the plot of the Gran Turismo movie.
Every Gran Turismo game has a sizable amount of real-world detail that extends from the huge numbers of cars available to the physics that take into environmental considerations that would affect an actual driver. There is a large industry that surrounds Gran Turismo and serious players have access to a vast array of kits and racing cockpits to simulate actually driving. It’s this sub-culture of serious players that have informed the movie Gran Turismo — beyond the fact it's adapting a video game, it looks set to be a solid sports movie about virtual drivers taking on real-world circuits.
Latest Gran Turismo Movie News
The most recent Gran Turismo movie update is that the Gran Turismo release date has been delayed. The news of the Gran Turismo delay came alongside several other shifts, as Sony has changed the release date of seven major movies that were scheduled for release in 2023 and 2024. Several of the 2024 delays are due to the WGA writers' strike, as writers aren't able to work on set. The movies originally scheduled for release in 2023 have been delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike. As part of the strike, actors aren't allowed to promote the movies they're in, and that includes the actors in Gran Turismo, including David Harbour and Orlando Bloom.
However, the Gran Turismo release date hasn't been delayed by too long. The movie was planned to be released on August 11, and it has been delayed by two weeks to August 25. Though the actor's strike will likely still be happening on August 25, Sony has cleverly set up nationwide previews in the two weekends before its official release. The studio clearly has the intention that if the actors can't promote the movie, then the positive word of mouth will.
Gran Turismo Release Date
Sony has officially set the Gran Turismo release date as August 25, 2023. However, it had a long journey to get to this point, as the Gran Turismo movie was confirmed a decade ago. In 2013, it was announced that Fifty Shades of Grey producers Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti would be attached to an project. Then in 2015, Joseph Kosinski of Tron: Legacy was attached to direct, but those plans were canceled in 2018. There was no more news until 2022 when Sony and PlayStation confirmed that a new Gran Turismo movie would be moving forward (via Deadline). This news came soon after Uncharted’s release and its success may have been just the push the company needed to go forward with Gran Turismo.
Gran Turismo Cast
The Gran Turismo cast is a stellar lineup of contemporary acting talent. David Harbour of Stranger Things fame will be leading the cast as the retired driver Jack Salter, who teaches his teenage co-lead to drive. Playing opposite Harbour is Archie Madekwe (Midsommar) as Jann Mardenborough, a real Gran Turismo player turned racecar driver. Djimon Hounsou is set to play Jann’s father, Steve Mardenborough, Geri Halliwell his mother, and Daniel Puig as his brother. Darren Barnet will also play Jann’s unnamed rival, who is threatened by Jann’s success.
Josha Stradowski plays another rival driver, and Thomas Kretschmann has been added to the Gran Turismo cast as well. Orlando Bloom also s the Gran Turismo cast as Danny Moore, a marketing executive that runs the GT Academy. Rounding out the rest of the Gran Turimso cast are Maeve Courtier-Lilley, Emelia Hartford, Pepe Barroso, Sang Heon Lee, Max Mundt, Mariano González, Harki Bhambra, Lindsay Pattison, Théo Christine, and Nikhil Parmar.
Gran Turismo Story Details
Unlike other recent Sony video game adaptations, the Gran Turismo movie will not be based on the game. Gran Turismo movie story will, instead, recount the real-life story of Jann Mardenborouogh, the youngest winner of the 2011 GT Academy. Gran Turismo teamed up with the Nissan car company for the highly unusual GT Academy, a real-life camp and competition that gave Gran Turismo players the chance to learn to drive actual racecars (a visceral story as Harbour explains it). The GT Academy closed in 2016, but Jann continues to race.
As depicted in the Gran Turismo trailer, the movie will follow the underdog story of the 19-year-old from England, who competes in the 2011 GT Academy despite having no prior racing experience at all. The movie will follow Jann as he makes his way to the GT Academy and eventually to the racetrack, with the help of his mentor and racecar bootcamp coach. There will be difficulties and challenges in Jann’s way, not just from other drivers but from the surrounding media attention that comes with being the youngest winner in GT Academy history.
One of the major reasons for Gran Turismo’s success is that the gameplay makes the player feel immersed in the racing world. The Gran Turismo trailer and the Gran Turismo behind-the-scene trailer give an inside look at some of the moments of the film and show that the filmmakers are going to retain that feeling of immersion. In the game, the racetracks are realistically lit to mimic whichever location and time of day the player chooses; raindrops splatter on the windshield and CGI simulates life-like interiors. The filmmakers made a point of ensuring the viewing audience received the same immersion as gamers.
Gran Turismo Trailer
As the Gran Turismo trailer shows that it's as much of a biopic as it is a video game movie, Gran Turismo could become a great video game film thanks to this novelty. The Gran Turismo trailer depicts Jann ing the GT Academy, a competition hosted by Nissan to test racing gamers' skills with real-life cars. While Salter uses his no-nonsense tactics to train at his racing boot camp, Jann finds himself coming out on top, but is looked down upon by the Nissan racers for his gaming origins. Jann must prove himself to everyone, with Salter poignantly reminding him, "If you miss a racing line in a game you can reset. If you miss it in a real race, you could die."
A Gran Turismo behind-the-scenes trailer that was also released in early 2023. The trailer flips back and forth between actual movie scenes and Harbour, Bloom, and Madekwe as they talk about what to expect from Neill Blomkamp’s movie releasing August 2023. The trailer shows some exciting car races that include a swooping camera that follows the racers through a lap around a track. The sound, look, and feel of the trailer really do match up with the games, and video game fans should be satisfied with it. Madekwe’s mention of a love story means that the movie won’t solely be about the races.
Another recent Gran Turismo update is packaged in a vignette that details how much Jann Madenborough had to do with the movie (via YouTube). Mardenborough is the real-life race car driver on which the film is based. The vignette gives a quick background on how Mardenborough became a legitimate competitive racer within months of ing the 2011 GT Academy, and that he also does most of the stunt driving in the new movie. Archie Madekwe, who plays Jann in the movie, jokingly explains, "I think this is the first time ever where there is a film being made about someone's life and they are stunt driving in the film."
Other Crew On Gran Turismo
Helming Gran Turismo is Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie) as director. Blomkamp’s gritty, realistic style is perfect for a biopic sports drama. His tendency to frequently change camera angles and shot compositions in the middle of a scene is absolutely necessary for the film, which will surely see the camera going from the racer’s point-of-view to overhead shots to crowd shots and back all throughout the races. His talents will be important if this movie wants Uncharted’s success. The screenplay is written by Jason Hall (American Sniper) and Will Dunn (Ms. Marvel). Hall and the video game creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, are also executive producing.
