Joseph Kosinski in Talks to Direct Gran Turismo Movie

joseph-kosinski

It’s been a long, long time since we’ve heard anything about the Gran Turismo Movie – a feature film built around the GT franchise. The project was first leaked in 2013, and formally announced at Gamescom by SCEE President Jim Ryan later that year, but there hasn’t been much said about it since then.

Late yesterday, however, The Hollywood Reporter broke the silence, confirming things are back into motion with Joseph Kosinski being considered as the director for the film.

Kosinski has an impressive resumé which includes several high-profile movies, including Disney’s TRON: Legacy and Oblivion, a sci-fi film starring Tom Cruise. He has also directed commercials for major video games, including Halo 3 and Gears of War 3.

gran-turismo-movie-producersKosinski has reportedly been eager to make a motorsports movie for years now, having developed a script titled Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans which attracted interest from both Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt before the project was eventually cancelled. He also has a formal education in engineering and 3D graphics, which would make him quite an obvious fit for Gran Turismo.

Previously, screenwriter Alex Tse was said to be developing the film to tell the story of a GT Academy champion such as Lucas Ordoñez, but with the Kosinski on board most insiders expect this to change. Columbia Pictures co-president Michael De Luca is still set to be the producer of Gran Turismo, along with Dana Brunetti, Josh Bratman, DeVon Franklin and Elizabeth Cantillon.

Thanks to McLarenDesign for the tip!

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Comments (36)

  1. Lucas

    Can’t see how this will be any good. The only way I would see this is if it was some sort of mockumentary about the GT Academy, to keep things realistic.

  2. magsolid

    We need a new and refreshing movie. The movie should be based on a guy who go from virtual to reality racing, because that will make a lot more sense for a sim racing game title adaptation. It doesn’t have to be a true story like GT Academy winners, but similar in some ways. I would watch that for sure.

  3. Kiba Stryker

    It’s going to have to be about the people to be any good. Kind of along the lines of the Nissan commercial with the guy not seeing his family and drama like that. Also Similar to Rush, the movie involves racecars, but is about the people. That is the only way it will be any good. I loved Tron: Legacy and although Oblivion has its shortcomings, it is a pleasant film. I won’t hold my breath, because you can tell that Kosinski was forced to make concessions when making Oblivion, there was opportunity for some cool story lines that they passed up, but if they give him free reign, I think his film style can make for a decent racing movie.

  4. Poolanimator

    Unless its a really good movie, I don’t see it helping the GT brand. It can’t be the next fast and furious. It has to appeal to many different types of movie viewers, from the acceptable to everything to the nit picky who looks for mistakes. A movie made to represent Gran Turismo would ideally take a few hrs out of your day, but let’s face it. The movie will most likely be 1:45 to 2:15 minutes. The beginning should introduce characters and allow the viewers to understand what they are about. Towards the middle should have all the racing and some drama, because pretty women make movies better. The ending should leave the viewer wanting more. This is my opinion on Gran Turismo in Hollywood. Please don’t let your loyal fans down GT.

    1. moparmanmike

      But only half of the trailer will actually be in the movie. The rest will be on the “special features” on the bluray release.

  5. magsolid

    If this movie is gonna be based on GT Academy or something similar, then this is the first ever movie that i can’t wait to see its trailer preview. If this is gonna be another stupid fake movie like Fast n Furious but on race track with the Gran Turismo name on it, i’ll completely loss interest and maybe laugh at its trailer.

  6. infamousphil

    Talk about a tough acts to follow.

    GranPrix, LeMans and an entire VHS library of 90’s FormulaOne and SportsCar racing stacked neatly on the spare room’s shelves. ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and Speedvision all knew how to telecast a race. LOL, if a TV director would inadvertently cut away from the action the sportscaster would be calling for immediate corporal punishment!

    I’m so afraid of what would Kaz do to screw it up. And what the hell does Hollywood know about PD’s GT series, other than being Fast and Furious.

    Racing and sports car history is what drives me to turn on my multi-hundred dollar investment. Watch again(?) GT2’s introduction… you’ll get the picture.

    A proper “GT” film would start at the humble beginings of organized US and European auto racing and end with a look into the future. Kaz would probably screw up the later as well ;)

    The film would have to be 4 to 5 hours, minimum. Smuggle as much snack as you can into the theater or wait to put your HD TV to the test. Yup, it’s gonna be War and Peace all over again.

    Follow the many championship teams from Ford to Ferrari, Mclaren to Lotus… BMW to Porsche (screw EA! This is a film not a movie errr game ;)

    Then they need to highlight the drivers and circuits… the racing families and countries as the years roll by.

    I’m afraid I expect too much from a movie project on Gran Turismo. I haven’t seen Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’ yet. I hear nothing but good things about it. In the meantime… I’ll put in Alan DiCadenay’s sports car TV documentary and crash to the sounds of Ferraris screamin over the other side of the hill and cycling down through the gears to come to a stop… front and center with a few throttle blips before shutting down.

    1. MeanElf

      I don’t think it was mentioned anywhere that Kazunori Yamauchi would be involved in the film, other than consultant…

  7. Kurei

    A Gran Turismo movie… they must be running out of ideas.

    Now, a movie about Papryus Design/Simbin/iRacing and all that surrounds that/them these days, in the fashion of the ‘facebook’ movie, that’d be a creative thing imo.

    1. Louie_Schumii

      Yeah good luck to those devs actually having the budget or backing to get a Hollywood film together. You’re better off asking a small media house to make a doco about those devs but there won’t be enough of an audience for them to actually bother. Gran Turismo is a promising idea to make a movie out of and I’m looking forward to see where Sony decides to take the story, casting and general production of the film. Keep us posted GTPlanet!

  8. Johnnypenso

    It would be really entertaining to see an accurate story on both Lucas and Jan and their path to racing in the real world so long as it isn’t “Hollywoodized”. You know, dumbed down for the mass audience, full of stupid, unrealistic videogame play, shots of a Jann with a 45 degree slip angle at 150mph at Silverstone, emerging from a cloud of smoke to claim victory. Lucas climbing into cars he’s never driven, winning by .001 over Mario Andretti and Sebastian Vettel.

    In other news, I also believe in fairy’s and unicorns…lol.

  9. DCybertron

    Considering I liked Tron, hopefully this will be good.
    I also like the sound of that “Go Like Hell” script. Maybe something similar can be used?

  10. DaGiBUS

    I’m hesitant to see what they do considering how much of a flop Need for Speed was. Although, I’m interested to see what they do.

  11. GT5 Level 41

    I bet it will sound terrible. I bet the DVD release will contain a bunch of scenes that were supposed to be in the original release but just didn’t make it even though the theater poster showed them. At the last minute it will be altered for license issues. The soundtrack will play the same three songs throughout the whole movie.

    Just playing. I’ll go see it on opening night. I hope it turns out good. For the record, I liked the Kaz documentary.

  12. mpcp27

    Great another failure in the making like need for speed. What the story line going to be? I need to race on different tracks across the world..wait let me pull out my gps track maker and build some tracks..oops did I say that out loud…never mind my b spec bob will qualify and race for me…blah blah..waste of time..

    1. mpcp27

      Nah optic not gloomy, realistic. NFS has some back story and it turned out horribly..GT really doesn’t have any story to build on to make a movie, it’s just a racing simulator game. Yeah they can make a movie about jann but then thats not about gran turismo.

    2. MLRSparco

      XD spot on,GT doesn’t have a storyline so making any type of story out of it won’t be GT,so if you want to make a movie about track racing and slap GT’s title on there by all means go ahead.

    3. occasionalracer

      +1 OpticZero.. like it’s unbelievable that all some people can do is criticize no matter what the news is.. the thread in the forums is filled with jokes and trash talk.. (but coming mostly from the usual suspects that spend their day lifting their self-worth by coming up with another ‘take a shot at’ line)

    4. occasionalracer

      Yes JohnnyP.. I’m desperately lost finding a ‘sense of humour’ in life. Can you tell me more about Project Cars? (lol)

    5. mpcp27

      It’s amazing that certain people only want to see positive comments about news and dont want to hear any criticism etc. That’s what you going to get on a forum.

    6. occasionalracer

      Oh great.. so that’s where the secret info is stored. Can I expect to read a daily dose of your light hearted humour aimed at each flaw in it’s software design and coding? (I know the answer)

  13. Rubencho

    What a shame ‘Go Like Hell’ was cancelled, it’s a really good book/story. Hope this movie gets done

  14. MaxXsan

    Uhmmm… interesting. Not sure if making a movie is a great idea, but it could be good, who knows… looking forward to it. I’m sure this will take a long time tho.

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