Neill Blomkamp's latest biographical sports drama, "Gran Turismo," delves into the true story of Jann Mardenborough and delivers an authentic car racing experience to the audience. Its debut on Sept. 1 has generated excitement among racing enthusiasts in China.

Jann Mardenborough is depicted in promotional material as both a gamer and a racer. [Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment]

Produced by Columbia Pictures and PlayStation Productions, "Gran Turismo" mirrors the renowned racing simulation video game series crafted by Polyphony Digital, a branch of Sony Interactive Entertainment. With a staggering 90 million units sold, "Gran Turismo" stands as a crown jewel in Sony's gaming portfolio. The movie narrates the journey of Mardenborough, a young gamer who ascends to the ranks of a professional race car driver. Leading the cast as Mardenborough is Archie Madekwe, supported by renowned actors such as David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Darren Barnet, and Emelia Hartford.

"Gran Turismo is the ultimate wish fulfillment movie," expressed South African director Neill Blomkamp. "You can have the best reaction time, all of the skill, but when you're going wheel-to-wheel at 200 miles per hour, that's when you get the chance to prove that you're for real. And that's what happened to Jann Mardenborough."

Blomkamp accentuated the intriguing nature of Jann's story, emphasizing how it unfolds like an extraordinary dream turned reality. "When I read the script, I couldn't believe it was actually based on the true life story of Jann Mardenborough. The events in the film are pretty much exactly as they happened."

Blomkamp's way into the film was through a longtime love of cars — the merging of mechanics, engineering, art, and design — and that meant the exciting possibility of showing what these cars can do. "With a movie like this one, sometimes the temptation is to go all-digital. Shoot some background plates, do digital cars, and drop your actors in from a virtual production environment. But in this case, everything is real, and I mean literally everything is real. When we portray an actor driving the car, they are actually going around the track pretty close to the speed that they should be going," he said. 

To achieve authenticity, actual cars were used, and scenes were shot on genuine tracks such as the Slovakia Ring, the Dubai Autodrome, the Nurburgring, the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and the Hungaroring. Notably, the Hungaroring serves as a stand-in for the GT Academy (inspired by Silverstone, the hub of U.K. auto racing) and Le Mans.

For enhanced realism, Blomkamp honed in on two visual dimensions. He explored diverse camera options, leveraging cinematic drones for broad shots and first-person-view drones, a favorite among drone racers. Notably, Blomkamp was among the pioneering directors to adopt the Sony Venice 2 camera, paired with the Rialto extension, facilitating camera placements in areas previously deemed unreachable within and around the car. Furthermore, he accentuated lighting, photography, and production design to amplify the film's authenticity.

From the driver's seat, Blomkamp tapped into a unique resource to depict Mardenborough's racing experience: Jann Mardenborough. The 31-year-old co-producer, with a decade-long illustrious international racing career, doubled as the film's stunt driver for his character. "The story is based on him, Archie portrays him, and he's the stunt driver who drives Archie's car as the character based on him," said Blomkamp. "It's amazing – some very interesting meta things happening there."

"It's so surreal," even the real Mardenborough said. "The last time I was in Hungary, the track was packed with trucks for a race. This time, it was packed with trucks for a film being made about me. That blew my mind."

A Chinese poster for "Gran Turismo." [Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment]

"Neill's whole approach to the film was to try to make this true story in the most credible and authentic way possible," producer Doug Belgrad pointed out. "The whole idea here is to try to help the audience have that vicarious experience of being a racecar driver – that sense of speed and the thrills that come along with driving at high speed. Therefore, he wanted the real cars, driven by former race car drivers, to simulate the racing experience."

"Gran Turismo" hit theaters on Aug. 25 in the United States and other regions, accumulating $55 million globally the weekend before its China debut on Sept. 1. At its Beijing premiere on Aug. 16, the film drew rave reviews, with some attendees suggesting it surpassed the thrill of the "Fast and the Furious" series.

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