PlayStation Productions says the Gran Turismo movie on August 11, 2023, and has announced District 9 director Neill Blomkamp will direct.
If you’re wondering what the hell a movie based on Gran Turismo would look like, it seems like Sony wasn’t totally sure either. Here’s the synopsis of the film’s plot released by Sony Pictures, as reported by Deadline:
Based on a true story, the film is the ultimate wish fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.
It’s The Wizard for sim racers, which is perhaps the last approach I expected Sony to take.
Gran Turismo is one of Sony’s most beloved and enduring video game franchises, with new instalments appearing on each of its five major home consoles since 1997. The series is known for being a decidedly Japanese take on the sim racing genre: detailed, serious, and with few frills (though recent entry Gran Turismo 7 seems to have faltered somewhat in the frills department). Adapting a historically straight-ahead racing sim for film would present a fairly stiff challenge. Short of a proper documentary, the “based on a true story” approach feels like it may be as close to the spirit of the game as it’s possible to get.
Gran Turismo movie will follow Uncharted as PlayStation Productions ramps up film and TV adaptations of its most recognisable video game properties. HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has just completed filming, and a Twisted Metal TV is about to begin production for US network NBC’s streaming app, Peacock. Deadline’s story originally reported on what it knew about the film, which is currently still in early development. Sony later updated Deadline with confirmed information. If Sony expects the film to hit theatres in August next year, it will need to get a wriggle on. Provided the film remains on schedule, Blomkamp has a little over 13 months to turn the film in.
Blomkamp made a splash in 2009 with District 9, a grimy science fiction film about the segregation of alien refugees set in his native South Africa. District 9 was a feature-length adaptation of Blomkamp’s popular short film Alive in Joburg. Following a pair of feature-length follow-ups in Elysium and Chappie, and dropping out of a proposed Halo film with Microsoft, Blomkamp has since mostly returned to short films. His most recent feature, Demonic, was released last year.
Uncharted brought in a worldwide haul of $US401 million ($AU580 million), which was probably less than Sony hoped to make, but will surely be enough to get it a sequel.
More on the Gran Turismo movie as it develops.
[Deadline]
Leave a Reply