Sony Has Officially Started Filming The Gran Turismo Movie

Sony Pictures and Gran Turismo posted a tweet revealing that filming is underway for the first Gran Turismo movie. The tweet doesn't show much other than that it's the fourth scene of the film and that the Nissan GT-R will play a role.

That's to be expected for two reasons. Firstly, the GT-R was the cover model for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which came out in 2007. That's how old Nissan's iconic supercar is, yet it still has a cult following in the USA.

Secondly, the plot is closely connected to Nissan and its GT Academy. This venture was launched a year after the GT-R and was a collaboration between Nissan Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and Polyphony Digital. Serious gamers will know the latter as the gaming studio behind Gran Turismo.

In short, the GT Academy allowed sim racers to graduate from racing virtually to racing in real life. This ties in with the film's plot, which is based on the racing career of Jann Mardenborough. Mardenborough was the third and youngest GT Academy winner and its most successful graduate. Since winning in 2011, Mardenborough has been competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (third place in the LMP2 class). These days he competes in Japan's famous Super GT Series and as a simulator and test driver in Formula E. We expect Nissan's all-new Z GT4 will also turn up in the movie.

That's a pretty cool plotline. Archie Madekwe will play the main protagonist, and his mother will be played by Geri Horner, a former Spice Girl with close ties to F1 racing. David Harbour will play the coach and has spoken about the movie in interviews. Careful not to reveal too much, Harbour simply referred to the movie as "visceral."