Following the recent casting of Orlando Bloom, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Never Have I Ever star Darren Barnet has been tapped to join the growing cast of Sony Pictures’ upcoming racing movie Gran Turismo. This marks Barnet’s first high-profile project, in which he is set to play the role of a racer “who is ranked at the top at the GT academy and who is not thrilled to see the upstart teen excel.”
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Production is expected to begin this week in Hungary. Bloom and Barnet will be joining previously announced leads Stranger Things star David Harbour and Midsommar actor Archie Madekwe.
The film adaptation will be directed by Neill Blomkamp from a screenplay written by co-executive producer Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. It is expected to follow the story of a teenager with racing aspirations as they enter a series of Nissan competitions en route to becoming an actual professional race car driver — a true story that the film is based on. Production is set to begin next week in Europe.
Gran Turismo will be produced by Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Doug Belgrad, and Dana Brunetti, with game creator Kazunori Yamauchi executive producing. The film is currently slated for an August 11, 2023, theatrical release.
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Originally released in 1997, the Gran Turismo franchise has gone on to become one of the most popular racing video game properties ever, known for its meticulous level of detail and realism. Gran Turismo 7 is the latest game in the franchise, releasing on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in March of this year. The game received high scores from the reviewing press and impressed fans with its attention to detail and its expansive gameplay options. It was criticized for the grind needed to get its vehicles, but Polyphony Digital has slowly been addressing those concerns.
