Posted in: Movies, Sony | Tagged: film, gran turismo, neill blomkamp, sony pictures

Neill Blomkamp on Working with the Man Who Inspired Gran Turismo

The director of the recent Gran Turismo film is revealing how the film managed to get even more meta than they initially expected.

The newly released film Gran Turismo is an adaptation of a videogame and the real-life gamer-turned-driver story of Jann Mardenborough. But to make things even more meta, the film enlisted Mardenborough as both an advisor and stunt driver for the cinematic interpretation, ultimately giving the film's director an extra level of appreciation for the man who inspired the flick.

Keeping the Gran Turismo Movie Extremely Meta

In a recently published interview (conducted pre-strike to abide by regulations), Gran Turismo director Neill Blomkamp exclusively tells JoBlo, "It was awesome working with him and to tell his story because you know he's a really great guy and what he's done is really exceptional. So, I got to know him during prep and then during shooting. He was initially gonna be on set as one of our advisors. Not only for the realism in terms of all of the racing stuff but obviously more for the personal stuff."

The director then goes on to elaborate, "But, what happened was we started realizing – I don't remember who had the first idea, I think it may have been me- where I was saying like we should get him into a car and just let him drive and be a stunt performer somewhere in the pack. And then the stunt department had to certify him. They immediately loved him and said he was excellent. And then we were also looking for a stunt double for Archie for the driving scenes. So it was this like obvious next step, which was like, why don't you just play yourself and drive your own car? So it's pretty meta but very cool."

Gran Turismo: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Summary: Based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, the film is the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.

Gran Turismo is directed by Neill Blomkamp with a screenplay by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. It will be produced by Doug Belgrad, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Dana Brunetti, with Kazunori Yamauchi, Herman Hulst, Jason Hall, and Matthew Hirsch serving as executive producers. It stars David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, Darren Barnet, Geri Halliwell Horner, and Djimon Hounsou. It is in theaters now and has managed to amass $53 million so far against an estimated budget of $60 million.

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