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The Stranger Things Star Explains How Gran Turismo Avoids Video Game Adaptation Curse

• Jacob Chambers
• May 8th, 2023

After Uncharted’s unexpected success, PlayStation Productions’ next film, Gran Turismo, looks promising. Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) and David Harbour (Stranger Things) star alongside Archie Madekwe as real-life gamer-turned-pro-racer Jann Mardenborough.

“I’m really happy with the approach that they took to this because I think we all know, unfortunately—I mean, it’s just a thing—video game movies don’t work,” Harbour told IGN and director Neil Blomkamp about the film.

Max Payne, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Assassin’s Creed have set this unfortunate precedent. However, Sonic the Hedgehog and The Super Mario Bros. Movie have done amazing things in recent years, which may be the trick.

Harbour says video game adaptations fail “because what we love about video games is that we’re the player playing them.” We direct. We don’t want a director and team to dictate the story. We want that story for ourselves.”

“It’s about a guy who played video games very intensely and then took that video game experience and put it on the track.” Gran Turismo’s secret is that it’s not a video game movie. It’s like a great sports movie.”

Do you agree with Harbour’s outlook? Will the Gran Turismo movie live up to expectations?