‘District 9’ director Neill Blomkamp might have been frustrated in recent years –– especially when it comes to his planned ‘Alien’ movie and the box office performance of horror movie ‘Demonic’ –– but he’s finally back on the big screen with a wide release movie.

‘Gran Turismo’ is essentially adapting the Sony racing game, but instead of taking the ‘Need for Speed’ route and trying to wrap a narrative around something that doesn’t have one (and ‘Need for Speed’ didn’t exactly succeed, let’s not forget), it’s taking on a real-life story.

The script for this one comes from ‘American Sniper's Jason Hall and ‘King Richard's Zach Baylin, but has also seen work from Will Dunn, and Erich Hoeber and Jon Hoeber.

Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough in 'Gran Turismo.'

Archie Madekwe as Jann Mardenborough in 'Gran Turismo.'

What is the story of ‘Gran Turismo’

The film will follow the impressive tale of Jann Mardenborough (‘Midsommar’s Archie Madekwe), a British teenager who in 2011 entered GT Academy, an esports tournament created to find ‘Gran Turismo’ players who were good enough at the game to be able to competitively drive real-life race cars. Mardenborough was victorious in the GT Academy competition and became a race car driver for Nissan, competing in the Dubai 24 Hour endurance race.

In the trailer, we see Jann arriving with other GT Academy contestants and being put through the wringer by racing trainer Jack Salter (David Harbour) who puts them through a rigorous boot camp to get them in shape. It’s one thing to know how to hit every corner on a world-class racetrack and to overtake in a simulation of a Nissan GT-R LM, but as Jann finds out, it’s hard to do it when the g-forces and hot temperatures of an actual race car are bearing down on you.

“If you miss a racing line in a game you can reset,” warns Jack. “If you miss it in a real race, you could die.”

Sony's 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.

(L to R) 'Gran Turismo's Orlando Bloom and David Harbour at Sony's 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Who else is in ‘Gran Turismo’?

Apart from Madekwe, we have Djimon Hounsou playing Jann’s father, who doesn’t exactly share his enthusiasm for the game, and warns him that he’ll need to get a real job if he wants to make it in life.

Orlando Bloom plays Danny Moore, a hungry marketing executive who organizes the academy in the first place and hires Salter to train the recruits.

Also in the cast are Darren Barnet, Josha Stradowski and Geri Horner (the latter of whom plays Jann’s mother).

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Real Action

According to Blomkamp, the idea was to have the racing scenes be as real as possible –– within the bounds of safety of course.

Here’s what he told Empire about it,

“It’s real actors, in real cars, on real racetracks, driving insanely quickly. The north star for me was to make a videogame title with character work that propels the movie, even more so than the racing. Although the racing is bloody intense, too.”

‘Gran Turismo’ drives into theaters on August 11th.

A scene from director Neill Blomkamp's 'Gran Turismo.'

A scene from director Neill Blomkamp's 'Gran Turismo.'

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