Director Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo is not your standard video game movie. The game it’s based on is a racing simulator that doesn’t feature any kind of plot for filmmakers to try and adapt, so the creatives behind the project had to take a special approach. Instead of opting for the purely fiction route, the film instead tells the fascinating true story of Jann Mardenborough – a British gamer who had never competed in a motorsport before being selected to attend the GT Academy and becoming a professional racing driver.
It’s a much different approach than what we’re used to seeing from Hollywood when it comes to bringing video games to the big screen, but it’s also worth noting that it’s also quite different than most biopics we see. This is because the real Jann Mardenborough was not only an important behind-the-scenes consultant on the Playstation feature, but also one of the production’s primary stunt drivers.
