Not deterred by the middling success of last year’s Need for Speed, Sony is pushing ahead with its big-screen adaptation of Gran Turismo, and today, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Oblivion and Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has entered talks to helm the project.
While it’s not necessarily a done deal, as the outlet states the director is still in negotiations, early signs appear to be promising. Should Kosinski sing along the dotted line, he will work alongside Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti, Josh Bratman, DeVon Franklin and Elizabeth Cantillon, who are all on board as producers.
“Kosinski has been itching for a racing movie for a while,” the website explains. “The director spent a couple of years developing a movie based on Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans, written by A. J. Baime, for Fox. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were circling, but ultimately the project spun off the track and Kosinski moved on.”
Given that the cinematic rendition of Gran Turismo is still in its nascent stages, there’s nary a word about the plot of Sony’s interpretation. Late last year, Polyphony Digital — developers behind the IP — boss Kazunori Yamauchi revealed that the film would follow a video game player who is given the opportunity to become a real-life racer. However, this most recent report suggests that Yamauchi’s concept was part of an older script, which has since been revised.
Whatever the outcome, given Gran Turismo‘s heritage, one would assume that Sony would pitch the translation as a more realistic sports film, perhaps in the vein of Ron Howard’s critically-acclaimed Rush.
As for the latest installment in Sony’s prestigious, cutting-edge franchise, Gran Turismo 7 is expected to arrive in the latter stages of 2015 or, in the more likely scenario, some point in 2016.