High speed vehicle-centric movies are zooming into the market of late. The first that surely springs to mind is The Fast and the Furious franchise and, if we look ahead, audiences are in for a hell of a ride as DreamWorks is busy wrapping up the Scott Waugh directed adaptation of Need for Speed starring Aaron Paul whilst Legendary are torn between Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and Simon Crane (Second Unit Director on World War Z) to direct a big screen version of Hot Wheels. There are even plans for Zombieland director, Ruben Fleischer, to helm a Spy Hunter movie.
Fearing no competition, Sony recently acquired Go Fast, a high-velocity boat thriller written by xXx scribe Rich Wilkes and directed by Kick-Ass 2’s Jeff Wadlow and the studio has now announced their adaptation of the popular PlayStation exclusive game franchise Gran Turismo.
The Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation production duo of Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti are already attached to produce whilst nothing has been confirmed with regards to a director, scribe, or actors. Nothing is known in terms of plot but, given the fact Gran Turismo are simply ‘real’ race driving simulators, the sky is the limit for whoever gets tapped to adapt a screenplay. That said, Sony will certainly have to aim high given the aforementioned plethora of high adrenaline films recently released and in the pipeline.
Adapting the franchise into a film does certainly seem a wise move from Sony given name recognition alone. The original game took Kazunori Yamauchi, a former race driver, five years to develop (published in 1997) and was so successful that it lead to a further four follow-ups, various spin-offs and Gran Turismo 6 is set to release this festive season.
Are we all excited? Would you like to see a high paced car movie with some steamed up windscreens a la Shades of Grey?
We’ll leave you with a video celebrating the 15 years Gran Turismo has been keeping over 70 million car enthusiasts happy:
