Demonic Director Neill Blomkamp Might Direct a Gran Turismo Movie

Demonic Director Neill Blomkamp Might Direct a Gran Turismo Movie

During a corporate presentation yesterday, Sony revealed that it had more film and television projects in the pipeline. In addition to reconfirming the God of War series at Amazon Prime, the company announced a Horizon series for Netflix and something related to Gran Turismo. At the time, I assumed that meant a revival of the old GT Academy web series, where Gran Turismo players competed to become real race car drivers.

Apparently, that’s not the case. According to Deadline, Gran Turismo is being planned as a feature film. The project is apparently quite early in development, with director Neill Blomkamp being looked at for the director’s chair. Yes, that would be the Neill Blomkamp behind Demonic, Chappie, and District 9. This wouldn’t be the first gaming project Blomkamp has been attached to, as the writer-director originally planned to make a Halo film before leaving due to scheduling conflicts. He’s also directed short films for Halo and Anthem, and is currently working with Gunzilla Games on the development of the upcoming game Off the Grid.

One wonders what a Gran Turismo film would even look like. Are you just going to do a standard drama plot, a scrappy aspiring racer getting the chance to get into the big leagues? Is this Days of Thunder in the modern day, or Ford v Ferrari, focusing on a bit of history related to the game? Or are we looking at a thinly-veiled thriller with the Gran Turismo name on it, like 2014’s Need for Speed film starring Aaron Paul. That last one wasn’t good!

Regardless, that means we now have some idea about the shape of PlayStation Productions’ Gran Turismo project. It joins the other ten projects in development based on PlayStation games. Those projects currently include:

Uncharted (Film)
Ghost of Tsushima (Film)
The Last of Us (HBO)
Twisted Metal (Peacock)
God of War (Amazon)
Horizon (Netflix)

Uncharted has made $400 million at the worldwide box office so far, and Sony is likely hoping for wins across all the projects. And that means everything is a potential cinematic brand, including the simulation racing series. While we wait for the film, you can play the uniformly-excellent Gran Turismo 7, currently available on PlayStation 5.

Author: Deann Hawkins