Gran Turismo movie: Release date, trailer, cast, plot & more

❘ Published: 2023-07-29T16:02:23

Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough in the Gran Turismo movie

Sony Pictures

Here’s everything we know so far about the Gran Turismo movie, including its release date, trailer, cast, plot, and more.

Video game adaptations have been all the rage lately and Sony has been helping lead that charge. From Nathan Drake’s big screen debut in Uncharted to the immensely successful The Last of Us series on HBO, and even projects on the way for Horizon, God of War, and Twisted Metal, there’s plenty to be excited about.

Joining that list and crossing over to new audiences in the near future is none other than Gran Turismo. While Sony’s iconic racing franchise has never been known for its storylines, rather its extraordinary attention to detail, an all-new narrative is taking shape to help catapult the series onto the big screen.

With big names already attached and production now underway, it won’t be long before Gran Turismo is speeding into your local cinema. So before it gets there, be sure to brush up on everything we know about the movie adaptation thus far.

Gran Turismo movie release date
Gran Turismo movie cast
Gran Turismo movie plot
Gran Turismo movie trailer

Gran Turismo movie release date

The Gran Turismo movie will now be released on August 25, 2023, after production announced the movie’s two-week delay.

The original August 11, 2023, release date was announced when Sony first unveiled the project earlier in 2022. However, Sony recently shifted the premiere to August 25 amid SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Accomplished director Neill Blomkamp is helming the project. Best known for his sci-fi work with the likes of District 9, Elysium, and Chappie, the more grounded racing project will seemingly be a departure from his typical productions.

“It’s real actors, in real cars, on real race tracks, driving insanely quickly,” Blomkamp told Empire.

“The north star for me was to make a video game title with character work that propels the movie, even more so than the racing. Although the racing is bloody intense, too.”

Gran Turismo movie cast: Who’s in it?

The Gran Turismo movie cast includes:

Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough
David Harbour as Jack Salter
Orlando Bloom as Danny Moore
Darren Barnet as Matty Davis
Djimon Hounsou as Steve Mardenborough
Geri Halliwell as Jann’s mother
Daniel Puig as Jann’s brother
Josha Stradowski as a rival driver

Harbour, who’s best known for his roles in Stranger Things and Black Widow, was attached from the very beginning, alongside fellow Hollywood star Orlando Bloom, of Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean fame.

While Harbour will play Jann’s trainer, Bloom plays “the market lead at Nissan who convinces PlayStation to run the Gran Turismo challenge at the heart of the movie,” as per The Hollywood Reporter.

Gran Turismo movie plot: What’s it about?

The official synopsis reads: “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.”

More specifically, the movie is based on the story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo player from the UK who used his virtual experience on the tracks to his advantage, becoming the third and youngest winner of the GT Academy competition.

Talking to the PlayStation Blog about what attracted him to the project, Blomkamp said: “I’ve also been very close to video games in a lot of ways throughout my career, and I had never come across something like Gran Turismo where the movie itself treats the game as a game. It’s based on a true story about Jann Mardenborough who learned to drive playing the game before driving professionally in real life, competing against other real drivers. It’s just an amazing story.

“Another reason I signed on was because my stuff tends to be a lot darker and more dystopian, as you mentioned, but this movie felt, well, very inspirational. It had never crossed my mind that I would direct a movie where the audience would leave the theater feeling uplifted and inspired. This was really appealing to me.”

Is there a Gran Turismo movie trailer yet?

The first full trailer for Gran Turismo was released on May 2, with a second trailer releasing on July 20. You can check out both trailers below:

The trailers show Jann arguing with his father over pursuing a life as a racing driver, before he finds the GT Academy competition. Harbour’s character is skeptical about turning “scrawny little” gamers into “elite athletes”, but he sees talent in Jann.

More than the plot, we get a taste of the pulse-racing action, specifically calibrated to evoke the thrills of the game. “It really came down to creating something that would just be cool to watch on a large cinema screen, and for that we doubled down on FPV drones to carry IMAX sensor-approved cameras,” Blomkamp explained.

“There’s a ton of airborne, high-speed drone work in the film, and we utilized a pursuit-arm mounted to a high-speed vehicle. In this case, we actually mounted it to an R35 GTR, which could actually keep pace (pretty much) with a lot of the GT3 cars in the film.

“So between that car and the drone work, you already have some cool dynamic angles. But, I was also obsessed with recreating camera angles players know from the game: so, for the third-person chase perspective, we built an R1 rig that could position a camera such that the entire car would fit within the frame.

“To capture the driver’s POV (cockpit view), our stunt driver would lie back so we could mount a camera where his head should be. We liked including nods to the game in these kinds of ways.”

Sony also shared the first snippets of footage on January 4 at their CES press conference. Throughout this brief clip we got to see not only shots from the movie but also a handful of behind-the-scenes sequences.

That’s everything we know about the Gran Turismo movie. In the meantime, check out our other TV and movie hubs below: