Tag: Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo is the surprise feel-good sports movie of the summer

I didn’t think I’d like Gran Turismo. Instead, I loved it.

Editor’s note: All interviews for this story were conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

I’ll be honest with you. I was not super excited about seeing the new movie Gran Turismo. I’m not a big racing person, I had never played the game and the trailers didn’t exactly jump out at me.

Two hours and 15 minutes later, I left the theater with a wholly changed perspective. I was wrong. I loved it.

It’s certainly not perfect and falls victim to some of the cheesiness to which all sports movies are susceptible, but once it gets into gear, you are fully engrossed.

If Gran Turismo wasn’t based — albeit loosely — on the real-life experiences of an actual person, you’d think it was far too ridiculous to be believed. Gran Turismo, which hits theaters on August 25, tells the story of Jann Mardenborough, a driver that got his start in a very unorthodox way.

Mardenborough, played by the wonderful Archie Madekwe (Midsommar), became the youngest winner of the GT Academy in 2011. A gamer who had driven primarily through the simulated racing of the uber-popular Gran Turismo racing games, Mardenborough is thrown into the world of actual racing with real-life stakes.

“If somebody had just written this, like it wasn’t a real story, everyone would be like, ‘This is the dumbest movie we’ve ever seen. Like a video game kid could become a real driver,'” actor David Harbour told For The Win. “The fact that it’s true is incredible.”

Harbour (Stranger Things, Black Widow) joins as Jack Salter, the gruff former driver who’s charged with coaching the gamers on a real track, and Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean) plays idea man/business guru Danny Moore.

In a movie with incredible and breathtaking driving scenes, it’s the cast that really sells it. Mardenborough’s parents are played by two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond, Guardians of the Galaxy) and former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell Horner.

Gran Turismo is full of heart and heart-stopping action, making it a top-tier sports movie.

“I felt that in the reading of the script it has this Hoosiers quality to it, this feel-good sports movie,” Harbour said. “To be able to recreate that was a real gift.”

Harbour also credits director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) for giving them so much space to operate in the roles. But Madekwe is undoubtedly the star. The 28-year-old is emotional, compelling and convincing as the determined Mardenborough, and he had to learn how to both play the game Gran Turismo — all of the in-movie game sequences are real — and also how to drive an actual race car.

But which one was harder? “There was so much repetition, and it was such a new thing for me playing GT. It’s so specific and so delicate, like I could breathe too heavy and I would spin out and crash,” Madekwe said.

Madekwe had the benefit of Mardenborough being on set and driving stunts. This allowed for the young actor to get feedback and bounce ideas off him.

Go for the fast-paced action and amazing racing scenes, but stay for the incredible cast and story. Gran Turismo hits theaters everywhere August 25.

Gran Turismo movie gets first-ever trailer

Orlando Bloom and David Harbour are bringing a PlayStation classic to the big screen.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start your engines – a trailer for Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo movie is here.

On Tuesday, Sony Pictures released the first-ever trailer for Gran Turismo. In it, we can see Orlando Bloom (Lord of The Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean) and David Harbour (Stranger Things, Violent Night) help several fans of the video game series compete in real high-speed racing. Yes, really!

Believe it or not, Gran Turismo is based on the true story of professional race car driver Jann Mardenborough (played by Archie Madekwe in the movie), who began as a fan of the PlayStation racing sim before putting his skills to the test for real.

Check out the trailer for yourself below.

The film’s poster was also released on Tuesday, and it’s got quite an eyebrow-raising tagline.

“From gamer to racer” isn’t incorrect, given what the story entails, but it’s almost too meme-worthy – if you catch my drift.

Over on the PlayStation Blog, director Neill Blomkamp touched on how Gran Turismo incorporates many cinematic panning shots that ripped straight out of the video games.

“Well, it really came down to creating something that would just be cool to watch on a large cinema screen, and for that we doubled down on FPV drones to carry IMAX sensor-approved cameras,” Blomkamp said. “There’s a ton of airborne, high-speed drone work in the film, and we utilized a pursuit-arm mounted to a high-speed vehicle. In this case, we actually mounted it to an R35 GTR, which could actually keep pace (pretty much) with a lot of the GT3 cars in the film.”

“So between that car and the drone work, you already have some cool dynamic angles,” Blomkamp continues. “But, I was also obsessed with recreating camera angles players know from the game: so, for the third-person chase perspective, we built an R1 rig that could position a camera such that the entire car would fit within the frame.”

Gran Turismo hits theatres on August 11, 2023. The franchise’s rich history will likely be in Blomkamp’s film to some degree – perhaps even some tech we saw in Gran Turismo 7.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Gran Turismo boss is ‘considering’ bringing the series to PC

The hit racing simulation might not be exclusive to PlayStation much longer.

Polyphony Digital, the studio behind Gran Turismo, is seemingly interested in bringing its games to PC.

During an interview with GTPlanet, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi explained that putting Gran Turismo on PC is a strong possibility despite a few glaring technical hurdles (thanks, PC Gamer).

“Yes, I do think so,” Yamauchi said. “Gran Turismo is a very finely tuned title. There are not many platforms which could run the game in 4K/60 FPS natively, so one way we make that possible is to narrow down the platform. It’s not a very easy subject, but of course, we are looking into it and considering it.”

Yamauchi’s point on the series being demanding on hardware is an interesting one. Mostly because Gran Turismo 7 runs excellently on aging PS4 consoles, which most modern gaming PCs are a significant step up from specs-wise — just saying!

Sony has been going all-in on PC ports of popular PlayStation games for more than a year. God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection have slowly made it onto desktops within the last year. So Gran Turismo making the jump isn’t a stretch by any means; whether it materializes is a different matter, though.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.11 tweaks Credit rewards, adds new races

Gran Turismo 7 gets its first major update, boosting race rewards and adding new content.

Polyphony Digital has released its first major update for Gran Turismo 7,  version 1.11. The patch has been eagerly awaited as the title came under fire over its in-game economy, apparently aimed at pushing players to spend more on microtransactions.

This latest update brings more ways to earn Credits and increases existing Credit awards for completing events to ease the grind. The new patch is available today for PS4 and PS5 and the download size for the latter is 917 MB.

Update 1.11 adds new World Circuits events, including a World Touring Car 600 event at Tokyo Expressway, a WTC700 race at Le Mans, and a WTC800 Sardegna race, and tweaks some races in the latter half of the GT Café campaign to provide increased Credit rewards. 

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In the Circuit Experience mode, rewards are now provided when clearing all layouts of circuits with Gold or Bronze results. If players have already achieved these results, going into the sector selection screen and exiting with the ‘Exit’ button will award the prize.

A new challenge called “The Human Comedy” with 1-hour endurance races has been added to Missions. It becomes available to players after reaching Collector’s Level 23 and can bring up to 1.2 million Credits in rewards per event.

Even some core systems of the game itself have been tweaked: the physics when landing from a jump, mainly on dirt tracks, has been improved.

Polyphony Digital has promised more improvements in future GT7 patches, including the addition of 24-hour races and the option to sell vehicles. If you still haven’t made up your mind about the game, check out our Gran Turismo 7 review.

Written by Stoyan Ovcharov on behalf of GLHF.

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The complete history of Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo 7 marks the return of PlayStation’s best-selling franchise of all time. Here’s how we got from trading used cars on PS1 to watching GT Academy graduates win real race events.

For 25 years, Gran Turismo has challenged us to take virtual driving seriously. Its vehicles have always behaved differently than they do in other games, weighty and uncompromising in their realism. Thanks to Polyphony Digital’s fastidious eye, they’ve looked more like real cars too, and even in various custom-paint jobs and ill-advised spoilers, across five console generations, they have continuously wowed gamers. 

The seventh title in the series just released on PlayStation, and its arrival reminded us all what a vital, imperious, and often esoteric presence it’s been in gaming culture for a quarter-century. Gran Turismo’s direction hasn’t always been unwavering polar north – over the years its creators lost themselves in the periphery of car culture, veering over into motorsport team management in one game, stripping away everything but online multiplayer racing in another. 

But some constants have prevailed – outrageous jazz arrangements playing in the menus, a vast roster of classic and contemporary cars, a handling model detailed enough to give sim racers the necessary training for real motorsport careers, and an infectious sense of utter fascination with everything about the motorized vehicle. 

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