It seems that the next destination of Grand Touring It will be the cinema and not the small screen. As reported dead line, PlayStation Productions would be preparing a movie based on its popular racing game franchise and would have already chosen its director. would be the south african Neill Blomkamprecognized especially for science fiction feature films such as District 9, Elysium Y chappie.
It is worth noting, however, that said report is somewhat vague with respect to the filmmaker targeted for this production. Blomkamp is mentioned to be “in sight” of the study, but it is not specified how advanced the negotiations with him are —if they have even begun— or if they have already obtained his commitment to be in charge of the project. It does indicate that the development of the film adaptation is at a very early stage.
In the event that the project really progresses as Sony intends, it remains to be seen where the plot is planned to be established. Grand Touring is nothing more or less than a car racing simulator and throughout the entire franchise, since its introduction in 1997 on the original PlayStation, has not had a story arc or characters.
Another important point to note is that at first it was thought that the adaptation would be in the format of a series, and not a movie. It is that the novelty came to light with the confirmations of the television adaptations of God of Warwhich is coming to Amazon Prime Video, and Horizon Zero Dawn, which will land on Netflix. However, this original interpretation seems to have been incorrect.
Are there real reasons to get excited about a movie Grand Touring?
The question is quite difficult to answer, taking into account the few or no details that have been disclosed about it. The news of the adaptations of Grand Touring, God of War Y Horizon Zero Dawn it was confirmed at a Sony trade briefing, but PlayStation Productions has yet to make a public statement on the matter.
Furthermore, let us note that there was already an attempt to make a film of Grand Touring that did not prosper. This was in 2013, when Jim Ryan himself, current president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, confirmed its development. Michael de Luca and Dana Brunetti were even mentioned as producers, and at the same time Joseph Kosinski was linked —today on everyone’s lips because of his great work in Top Gun: Maverick– as director.
Nevertheless, never saw the light. The project remained in the background until, in 2018, Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of the video game saga of Grand Touring, ruled that he saw no future for the issue. “I have a feeling that it is not going to go ahead,” the CEO of Polyphony Digital said at the time, and the subject was simply not discussed.
Should Sony publicly confirm that Gran Turismo will make its way to the cinema, it will be interesting to see what perspective Neill Blomkamp will take, assuming that the South African will indeed take the reins on the project. The filmmaker has experience with the treatment of action in his films, although so far none have had to do with racing cars. His most recent work was Demonicfrom 2021, a horror feature film also written and produced by him, which was very poorly received by critics.