UPDATED: David Harbour To Drive ‘Gran Turismo’ for Sony and PlayStation Productions, Orlando Bloom Following
Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions’ biopic adaptation of the hit racing video game series Gran Turismo has enlisted Stranger Things‘ David Harbour.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on Wednesday, which means the project is quickly being fast-tracked by Sony and PlayStation. District 9 and Elysium director Neill Blomkamp has been attached to the project for a while. Gran Turismo will be his first major film since 2015’s Chappie, after his Alien and RoboCop sequels were canned and 2021’s Demonic (a small horror thriller) tanked hard. On the side, Blomkamp joined independent video game studio Gunzilla Games in summer 2021 as “chief visionary officer” to help craft an ambitious multiplayer shooter.
An introduction for Stranger Things veteran David Harbour is not needed, as he’s one of the biggest names in Hollywood at the moment, jumping from high-profile blockbusters such as Black Widow to smaller, off-beat joints like the upcoming Violent Night, in which he basically plays Santa Claus meets John Wick. For Gran Turismo, he’ll become a retired driver who mentors the young protagonist of the film.
In a surprising move, Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions aren’t approaching Gran Turismo as a direct adaptation of the famous video games — the project is described instead “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.”
The script comes from Jason Hall (American Sniper) and Zach Baylin (King Richard). Sony is currently targeting a theatrical release on August 11, 2023, though it seems a bit unlikely as cameras aren’t rolling yet.
UPDATE: THR also confirmed on Friday that Orlando Bloom will be following Harbour into the high-profile project, reportedly playing “a hungry marketing exec who is selling the sport of motor racing.” Stay tuned for more casting news in the coming weeks as Neill Blomkamp’s next film revs up.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
