Gran Turismo: The Movie (August 11, 2023)

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

David Harbour Set to Star in ‘Gran Turismo’ for Sony and PlayStation
Neill Blomkamp, best known for his sci-fi movies such as 'District 9' and 'Elysium,' is directing the project that is inspired by both the best-selling video game and a true story about one of its players.

David Harbour is revving his engines.

The Stranger Things star has signed on to star in Gran Turismo, the Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions feature adaptation of the best-selling racing video game.

Neill Blomkamp, best known for his sci-fi movies such as District 9 and Elysium, is hitting where the rubber meets the road with this one, directing the project that has a script by Jason Hall (American Sniper) and Zach Baylin (King Richard).

Based on a true story, the project is described as the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.

Harbour will play a retired driver who teaches the teen to drive.

PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan, as well as Doug Belgrad and Dana Brunetti, are producing. Game creator Kazunori Yamauchi and Hall are executive producing.

“As one of PlayStation’s longest standing and most beloved franchises, it’s great to be partnering with Columbia Pictures again to bring Gran Turismo to life in an exciting way,” said Qizilbash in a statement. “We can’t wait for audiences to see Neill’s vision of this inspiring true story of gamer turned professional race car driver.”

Sony is planning a theatrical release for Turismo on Aug. 11, 2023.

Gran Turismo was revolutionary when it first debuted in 1997 on the PlayStation, capturing the feeling of actually being behind the wheel better than any other game had at that point. With sequels released across the many PlayStation platforms in the years since, Turismo is reportedly the top-selling Sony franchise of all time.

After years of fits and starts, Sony and PlayStation Productions seem to finally be finding their groove with video game adaptations. Uncharted, which starred Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, earned over $400 million worldwide when it was released earlier this year. A TV version of The Last of Us is in production and headed to HBO. Also in the works are a movie version of Ghost of Tsushima, with Chad Stahelski attached to direct, and a series take on Twisted Metal, being written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and set to star Anthony Mackie.

Harbour appeared onstage at D23, the Disney convention, last weekend, where it was revealed that he would be reprising his Black Widow role of Red Guardian for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Thunderbolts movie.

He was seen in Steven Soderbergh’s 2021 noir thriller No Sudden Move and recently wrapped shooting action flick Violent Night for Universal. His turn in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway earned him a Tony nomination.

The actor, who will return to his role of Jim Hopper for the final season of Stranger Things, is repped by WME and Sloane Offer.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/david-harbour-gran-turismo-sony-playstation-1235220238/

[G✇JI☈A]

I can’t wait for Harbour to race a 1997 Toyota Celica for 4 hours to try and earn enough to buy a 2003 BMW M3

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Not much story material you can get out of Gran Turismo, unless you can stretch “It took me two years to go from a used Honda Civic to an actual car that won Le Mans” to 90 minutes with nothing between the races to work with.

[Natural Born Farmer]

Harbour needs a better agent.

[pinja]

David Harbour has a sixth sense for box office bombs. Very impressive.

[BJ Sturgeon]

What can a movie about this franchise bring to the table that hasn't already been done in Fast & Furious?

[Sponsored by Groose Wipes]

Only works if Oh Yeah by Yello is in it.

[Mister Pigwell]

I hope it's just a 3 hour endurance race in its entirety with a single song playing on repeat (Super Bon Bon by Soul Coughing will do) to really capture that GT2 feel.

[xCompackx]

Sept 15, 2022 8:49:23 GMT -5 BJ Sturgeon said:

What can a movie about this franchise bring to the table that hasn't already been done in Fast & Furious?

No family.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

[agent817]

Sept 15, 2022 3:26:38 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Not much story material you can get out of Gran Turismo, unless you can stretch “It took me two years to go from a used Honda Civic to an actual car that won Le Mans” to 90 minutes with nothing between the races to work with.

You could say the same about that Need for Speed movie that came out almost a decade ago. I didn't mind that movie, by the way.

[G✇JI☈A]

Bloom will be playing a traffic cone during the “B License” bit

[jimmyjackezekiel]

Screw that. Where's my Driver Movie where it takes the whole 90 minutes to make it past the tutorial.

[Eunös ✈]

If nothing else I hope this Movie has a really good version of "Moon over the Castle" to go with it.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

[SmashTV]

Half an hour of the kid gaming. Fifteen minutes of him winning the prize. Forty five minutes of the learning to drive part (including montages). Twenty five minutes of the race.

That should do it.

Incidentally, it already sounds absolutely terrible.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

[A Platypus Rave]

So it was a biopic... and Sony just slapped Gran Turismo's name on it instead.

[schizo]

what happened to that pong movie (or was it Tetris?) that Hollywood was trying to make a thing out of at one point?

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Jan 5, 2023 7:27:59 GMT -5 schizo said:

what happened to that pong movie (or was it Tetris?) that Hollywood was trying to make a thing out of at one point?

It was Tetris. A "sci-fi epic" produced by Larry Kasanoff, the man behind the live-action Mortal Kombat adaptations of the mid-to-late '90s. It was to be filmed in China in 2017. Needless to say, it wasn't, and there has been no news since 2016.

But there is a Tetris movie being released this year.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_(film)