Stranger Things and Black Widow's David Harbour to Star in Gran Turismo Movie

In case you somehow missed it, Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions previously announced a Gran Turismo movie directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium). The new movie is set to release on August 11, 2023. And now, it has been revealed that Stranger Things and Black Widow's David Harbour will star in the film.

"Based on a true story, the film is the ultimate wish fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver," the official logline for the upcoming film reads. While Harbour himself isn't the teen, he will portray a retired driver that teaches the teen to drive.

Harbour has been on something of a hot streak since first appearing in Netflix's Stranger Things. In addition to starring in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Black Widow as Red Guardian, it was revealed during the D23 Expo 2022 recently that he will also be part of the team that makes up the cast of Marvel's Thunderbolts movie. And now, he is set to star in the upcoming Gran Turismo movie.

"As one of PlayStation's longest standing and most beloved franchises, it's great to be partnering with Columbia Pictures again to bring Gran Turismo to life in an exciting way," said Qizilbash in a statement shared by The Hollywood Reporter. "We can't wait for audiences to see Neill's vision of this inspiring true story of gamer turned professional race car driver."  

As noted above, the Gran Turismo movie is currently set to release theatrically on August 11, 2023. The movie is being directed by Neill Blomkamp with a script by Jason Hall and Zach Baylin. The movie comes from Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions with the latter's Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan as producers as well as Doug Belgrad and Dana Brunetti. Gran Turismo franchise creator Kazunori Yamauchi is serving as executive producer alongside Hall. The long-running video game franchise first began in 1997 and released Gran Turismo 7 earlier this year. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Gran Turismo franchise in general right here.

What do you think about Harbour joining the Gran Turismo movie? Are you excited to see what the movie ends up looking like? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things movies and gaming!