Gran Turismo Movie Producer Compares it to "Rocky for Video Games"
The upcoming Gran Turismo movie is being dubbed as the "Rocky for video games". Video game adaptations are becoming the hot new trend for Hollywood thanks to big hits like The Last of Us. PlayStation has even formed its own production company known as PlayStation Productions which works with Sony Pictures to adapt a bunch of PlayStation properties. There are about ten projects in various stages of development right now and the next one that fans will get to see is the Gran Turismo movie coming this August. The film has had one brief teaser released so far and will likely get a proper trailer in the coming weeks, but fans already have an idea of how the story plays out.
Gran Turismo is based on a true story surrounding the game franchise rather than an adaptation of the actual game, since the games have no real story. It's about a fan who played the games, won a competition centered around the series, and went on to become a skilled professional driver in real life. When speaking about the film on the official PlayStation Podcast, Head of PlayStation Productions Asad Qizilbash dubbed it the "Rocky for video games" and is inspired by The Last Starfighter.
"The way I look at is it's sort of like Rocky for video games and it's inspired a little bit by The Last Starfighter as well. It's an incredible story of these guys are so good as Gran Turismo that they can become professional race car drivers. [...] When we developed the script, [Peter Kang] presented the script to [Sony Pictures head] Tom Rothman, Tom absolutely loved it but slid it back over the table and said 'This is great, but it would be even better if it was a true story.' Peter slid it back, saying 'No, it is a true story.' And Tom said, 'Ok, we've gotta make this.'"
Qizilbash also noted that they're planning to apply the same "formula" used for The Last of Us to adapt God of War and Horizon. Essentially, they plan to keep it very faithful to the games while still expanding the world with new character POVs rather than making massive changes to the core story. Only time will tell how those turn out, but things appear to be going in a positive direction.
What do you think of PlayStation's approach to adaptions? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.