Sony sets a release date for its film adaptation of PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, which will be based on a true story about the racing game.
New details have surfaced regarding Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions’ upcoming film adaptation of Gran Turismo, including the fact that the movie will be based on a true story involving the popular racing game series.
In May 2022, Deadline exclusively reported that Sony had tapped District 9 director Neill Blomkamp to helm a feature film based on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, which was said to be in early development. Deadline has now updated its report, explaining that the film is slated for release on Aug. 11, 2023. The Blomkamp-directed film is written by Jason Hall, with Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions producing alongside Doug Belgrad and Dana Brunetti.
Additionally, the updated logline reads as follows: “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.” As ComicBook.com points out, this story sounds very similar to that of British professional racer Jann Mardenborough, who competes in the Japanese Super GT series.
Created by Kazunori Yamauchi, the Gran Turismo series of racing simulators is developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The franchise currently consists of eight main-series entries. The first, simply titled Gran Turismo, released excusively for the original PlayStation in 1997. A sequel, Gran Turismo 2, hit the platform in 1999.
2001’s Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec was the series’ first entry to release on the PlayStation 2. It was followed by Gran Turismo 4 in 2004. The series made the jump to the PlayStation 3 with 2010’s Gran Turismo 5 and 2013’s Gran Turismo 6. The online-focused Gran Turismo Sport released exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in 2017. Most recently, Gran Turismo 7 released on the PS4 and PlayStation 5 earlier this year. A number of secondary titles have also been released on the PS2, PS3 and PlayStation Portable over the years.
Sony first announced plans for a Gran Turismo film in 2013. At one point, Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) was in talks to direct, with Jon and Erich Hoeber (My Spy) later being tapped to pen the screenplay. However, this version of the project was believed to be dead as of 2018.
Gran Turismo races into theaters on Aug. 11, 2023.
Source: Deadline