Gran Turismo is a pop culture legend among car enthusiasts growing up from the 1990s until now and spawned the growth of JDM culture to a wide range of fans, but now the computer game is being made into a movie.
Doubts surrounded the plausibility of such an idea, but using one of the stars from Gran Turismo’s GT Academy provides a great storyline to start off with.
Jann Mardenborough was the third and youngest winner of the GT Academy back in 2011, with the prize a drive in a Nissan at the Dubai 24 Hour. The Brit has enjoyed a long motorsport career including racing in the Formula 3 European Championship, GP3, GP2 and also finishing on the podium at the Le Mans 24 Hour in the LMP2 Class.
He was a part of Nissan’s unsuccessful 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship program ending after one event in an uncompetitive Nissan GT-R LM Nismo.
Since then, Mardenborough has led Nissan’s campaign in Super GT where he is a race winner in GT300 leading to a drive in Super Formula, scoring a pole position.
The Gran Turismo movie will be loosely based on the Brit and his climb up the motorsport ladder.
The screenplay written by Jamie Hall of American Sniper fame and Zach Baylin, who has worked on the autobiographical King Richard in addition to Creed III, leaving the cinematography to Jacques Jouffert.
The movie is set to be released on August 10 2023, starring Archie Madekwe as Mardenborough, alongside David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Djimon Hounsou and Geri Halliwell Horner.