Gran Turismo: discover the history of the video game coming to the cinema

On the day of the world premiere of Gran Turismo Movie . The film made its way from consoles to the big screen after being one of the main video games for car fans. In Chile, the film will begin on August 24.

With seven installments, the franchise created by Kazunori Yamauchi at studio Polyphony Digital will seek to match the recent success of other games, such as Mario Bros in the cinema, the same as The Last Of Us when it made its series debut on HBO.

Of course, Gran Turismo is a bit different from those mentioned above, because in this case the story does not want to imitate what happens in the game’s narrative, but give account of a case that makes everyone dream who is installed in front of a screen with cars at full speed.

The film directed by Neill Blomkamp and with stars like David Harbor and Orlando Bloom in its cast, stars Archie Madekwe, who will play Jann Mardenborough, a real gamer.

Mardenborough is a young man who was born in Darling, UK, and stayed up with Gran Turismo, to the point that decided to drop out of school to devote himself entirely to what he considers his passion , video games. It obviously wasn’t to his father’s liking, who didn’t understand his son’s obsession.

In 2011, he entered the GT Academy, an online Gran Turismo competition organized by Nissan and Play Station.

As in any competition, grace it’s leaving rivals on the road . In this case, push the Gran Turismo cars to the extreme, with the illusion of being the best of the GT Academy to win an unusual prize: having access to a test in a real racing car.

Jann Mardenborough, 19, beat 90,000 other players s who were registered for the third installment of the competition in 2011.

After winning the event, he won the expected prize, racing a Nissan in the 24 Hours of Dubai. From there, Mardenborough’s life changed. Today, the Briton is an official driver, with victories on circuits as important as the Sarthe and a presence in the European Formula 3 championships, in the GP3 Series and in the GP2 Series.

If Jann Mardenborough’s life changed with the GT Academy award that allowed him to leap from his chair to the real tracks, more explosive news would come later, but early he didn’t equate it with the relevance it had: they would make the movie Gran Turismo taking its history as its central axis.

” I do not believe it. In 2017, they told me that, perhaps, there was a film of my life, ”acknowledged Mardenborough in statements collected by the Sensacine site. “I was racing in Japan and the word ‘maybe’ and the fact that I was racing the following weekend made me ignore the ‘maybe’. I was focused on the race. Two years later, in 2019, I started meeting producers, screenwriters… Then it became real,” he recalls.

Regarding the cast and actor Archie Madekwe, who would portray him on the big screen, the Briton commented: “I met Archie a month before filming. We sat down, he asked me lots of questions for hours. It gave me confidence that I was going to do a good job. because he asked a lot of deep questions. And he did. He succeeded.”

Alongside discussions with Madekwe, Mardenborough was also involved in how the story would be told, in effect saying that “I was involved in all scripts . The first script is the first draft, so there are a lot of things that need to be changed. I spent hours talking to writers, producers, script by script, phrase by phrase,” he recalls.

In this work, Mardenborough accepted count the most complex moments , including the accident he had on the Nürburgring circuit in 2015, where one person lost his life. “I have no secrets. I’ve had very dark times of my life but they know each other, there’s nothing to hide,” he reflects.

Of course, at this point the director takes creative licenses and adjusts the dates. to add drama to the story (spoiler alert) saying that the accident pushes him and motivates him to get a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which really happened two years later.

But in the movies You are not always 100% attached to reality. This did not affect the development of the film, moreover, in addition to contributing scriptwriters to improve the story, Mardendborough also took on the task of support action scenes being Madekwe’s double.

“On the set of a film, if you make a mistake, the director and the assistant director will get very angry because theThey worry about the lighting and everything, but you can do it again. . In real life, in competition, you can’t repeat. It has to be done,” he said.

Contrary to what Mardendborough indicates, for the director the most complex was precisely the car scenes.

“Most difficult was all the choreography of the races . It is very difficult to film all this world of cars on the track. It’s a very difficult job that everything happens in such a way make it look like a real race. I don’t know if there was anything easy. I will say that nothing was easy. Everything was very difficult,” said Neill Blomkamp.

After knowing the outcome of the film, Mardendborough himself pointed out that He was very satisfied and would not change anything In addition, it is considered that the details have been very well taken care of so that the players of the PlayStation video game recognize the details.

“Yes, it captures the Gran Turismo experience very well, because insert many eggs Easter that only the actors of the saga will be able to seize”, declared the Briton.

Finally, when asked if he still takes the time to settle in to play Gran Turismo, Mardendborough was honest. “I still play video games, but the day has very few hours, so I play a bit of driving games and shooting games, especially Battlefield or Call of Duty: Warzone,” he said.

So now you know. If you’ve played Gran Turismo, it’s a must-see, but if you’re not close to video games, the movie will be too It looks interesting because of the human side it touches. And remember, in Chile, the premiere will be on August 24.