Gran Turismo: From gamer to professional pilot, the mind-blowing true story behind the film adapted from the video game

What is it about? Gran Turismo tells the incredible true story of a team of underdogs: a working-class gamer, a failed ex-racing driver and an idealistic motorsports executive. Together they risk it all and take on the most elite sport in the world.

Inspiring, thrilling and action-packed, GRAN TURISMO proves that nothing is impossible when you’re willing to take all the risks.

A mind-blowing true story

The feature film Gran Turismo is adapted from the famous video game series of the same name, developed by Polyphony Digital, but also inspired by the story of British racing driver Ian Mardenborough. As a teenager, the latter constantly plays the video game Gran Turismo to get closer to the experience of an F1 driver.

But he’s sure he’ll never experience the feeling of driving a race car… until he enters the Gran Turismo competition (a program developed by Nissan and Sony to turn virtual drivers into real drivers) in the hope of being selected for the Nissan GT Academy team .

Despite 90,000 competitors taking part in the event, Ian Mardenborough came out on top. This allowed him to compete at the wheel of a racing car at the Dubai 24 Hour Circuit, where he finished third. He then became a professional driver for Nissan and participated in several races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

If he has more or less respectable results in other races (British Formula 3 Championship, Blancpain Endurance Series, etc.), one of the most important events of his career remains his crash in 2015. His car took off and landed in the community. , a spectator was killed and several people were injured.

A long time project

Gran Turismo is a film project that dates back to 2013: at the time, Fifty Shades of Gray producers Dana Brunet and Michael De Luca wanted to oversee this adaptation of the famous video game on the big screen.

Produced by Kevin Spacey, the film finds its screenwriter Alex Tse (Watchmen) and its director Joseph Kosinski (Tron Legacy, Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick). But things don’t happen. It wasn’t until 2022 that the project came to fruition with Sony’s momentum and Neill Blomkamp (District 9) behind the camera.

Who for the hero?

The hero is played by Archie Madekewe, who can be seen in the TV series See and the disturbing horror thriller Midsommar, among others. He explains about his character: “He feels trapped. He’s stuck in his small town where the same things happen every day. But he’s driven by an all-encompassing passion and desire to rise above his situation.”

“He is passionate about cars and crazy about Gran Turismo – the only thing he dreams of is becoming a driver, but this is a world that has always been out of reach for him… until an opportunity appears: he is offered an experience. , which consists of training players so that they can become real Racing drivers.

be trustworthy

To be believable in character, Archie Madekwe had to learn a driving simulation and could actually participate in a Gran Turismo game. The actor recalls: “I had to be really good at this game. To shoot the scenes in the cafe with the consoles, we practiced playing against the AI, which was difficult and I had to win. It was impressive because I knew it took a lot of time. Practice and talent to be good at these games .”

To improve, Madekwe was coached by David Perelli, who, like Mardenborough, was a simulator driver and is now part of the Ferrari team. Archie adds: “PlayStation sent me a simulator – seat, steering wheel and pedals. And as soon as I finished my previous shoot, I had to practice endlessly. Learning to drive on a circuit requires a lot of skills – you have to learn. Race lines, corners and feel the brakes.”

“As soon as you can, you have to repeat the gestures, over and over again. All of this has inspired great admiration and respect for the pilots for what they do in the circumstances they have. They are delusional.”

FPV drones

Neill Blomkamp used FPV (subjective vision) drones to capture the intensity of the race: “Drone racing uses these types of devices and that’s where the inspiration comes from, but luckily for us they haven’t seen much use in racing before. Our FPV drones give us the most sensory immersive viewpoint imaginable.”

Drones at a speed of 150 km/h! How did Gran Turismo film its racing scenes?

“I like it when the camera, close to the ground, is attached to a remote control mount on the front of a car racing at full speed in a chase. There is a shooting car that tries to beat the main cars, and overtakes them. And since we are only a few centimeters off the ground, the feeling of speed is very well conveyed.”– says the director.