Sony dropped a first look at the upcoming Gran Turismo movie at CES, and we’re frankly shocked. The glimpses we get of on-track footage show some of the best racing camerawork we’ve seen in ages. Not only does it capture the excitement of car-vs-car battles, but groundbreaking angles accurately replicate the in-game perspectives players have come to know. As a result, it promises something that we’ve never seen in any other racing movie and yet feels familiar all the same.
We can’t help but be suckers for some Gran Turismo nostalgia. From the starting countdown beeps to the old school red and blue “GT” logo at the end, this trailer had us properly intrigued. News that the plot would follow the rise of a gamer rising through the ranks of the GT Academy could have just as easily resulted in a modern day version of The Wizard with lots of intense button-mashing. Fortunately, we get non-CG scenes of R35 Nissan GT-Rs and prototype racers instead.
The trailer also reveals that the story follows the career of Jann Mardenborough (played by Archie Madekwe), the youngest winner of the GT Academy. He’s since gone on to race professionally in everything from SuperGT to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A love story apparently gets shoehorned into the plot, but we’ll remain cautiously optimistic for now.
Directed by known GT-R fan Neill Blomkamp, some of the racing scenes faithfully recreate the “chase cam” views from the game. Reportedly, other POVs like the in-car cam and bumper cam get used as well. Other scenes make excellent use of low-flying drones dancing around the cars, something that has only become possible in recent years, to perform the replay angles of the game.
Gran Turismo is scheduled to debut in theaters on August 11, 2023.
