Gran Turismo is a riveting story about an underdog’s rise to greatness, but the movie has a serious problem when it comes to fake characters. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, Gran Turismo is an adaptation of the true story of a teenager named Jann Mardenborough who turns his passion for a racing video game into a professional racing career. Sony Pictures spent an entire decade developing a Gran Turismo movie before finally making a version that felt suitable to release to audiences. Though the movie remains faithful to the Gran Turismo video game experience, it fails to do so when it comes to the actual story at large.
When adapting a true story to the big screen, it is natural for creative liberties to be taken to help move the story forward and fit the medium’s time constraints. Gran Turismo, though, didn’t just make standard adjustments like quickening timelines or cutting less significant real-life moments. Instead, the Sony film chose to create entirely fictional characters and amalgamations of real ones. While these alterations to the real-life story have allowed Gran Turismo to become a hit, they ultimately serve to diminish the movie’s credibility. The movie promises to be concerned with telling Jann’s story faithfully, but by the end of the film, so many changes have been made there is only a semblance of what actually happened.
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Gran Turismo Invents Fictional Characters To Drive Jann’s Story Forward
Although based on a true story, Gran Turismo chose to invent a number of fictional characters in order to drive Jann’s overall story forward. For example, one of Gran Turismo‘s main characters, Jack Salter’s role in the film is huge as Jann’s mentor, and he serves to be a major influence on him. He is imperative to Jann’s ability to move forward after his car crash, and his own experience racing allows him to provide valuable guidance. Despite his significance in the movie, though, he is not based on a real person. It is possible that Jack is an amalgamation of real people in Jann’s life, like his actual mentor Ricard Divila, but there is no one person the character is made to represent.
One of the film’s antagonists, Nicholas Capa, is also a fictional character designed to move the plot along. Capa is Jann’s chief rival on the track in Gran Turismo, pushing Jann to beat him, his arrogance, and his dirty driving tricks. Another fellow racer in the movie, Matty Davis, falls into the fictional character bucket as well. Matty is one of the best GT Academy racers in Gran Turismo and becomes Jann’s biggest rival. In reality, there is no such person. He could be based on Jann’s fellow 2011 winner, Bryan Heikotter, but there is no real-life person in Jann’s life by the name of Matty Davis.
Even Danny Moore, the important marketing executive in Gran Turismo, is fictional. In the movie, Danny convinces Nissan and Play Station to launch the GT Academy initiative in a matter of days. In reality, there is no Danny Moore, and the idea took much longer to implement. According to Dexerto, Danny is inspired by Darren Cox, the founder of the GT Academy, and it actually took two years for the idea to come to fruition.
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Gran Turismo Sacrifices Reality For A Blockbuster Story
By crafting these fictional characters, Gran Turismo bolsters Jann’s origin story. It gives him a reason to rise to the challenge and beat all of the odds stacked against him. In reality, there was no villain to beat on the track and no marketing executive against him. This happens all of the time with true story adaptations, but rarely to this extent. Gran Turismo decided to craft fictional characters to bolster Jann’s story and push him to greatness.
Characters are not the only aspect of Gran Turismo not rooted in reality. The horrific car crash’s timeline was rearranged, and Jann had actually podiumed at Le Mans before his Nürburgring crash. Altering the timing of the accident gave Jann another huge thing to overcome to compete in Le Mans. These changes made for a good movie, but when transitioning a true story to the big screen, it is important to maintain authenticity wherever possible — something Gran Turismo failed to do. All of these alterations serve as a disservice to viewers, who are promised an accurate retelling of Jann Mardenborough’s real-life triumphs and tribulations.
Gran Turismo
Based on the video game franchise and the true story surrounding it, Gran Turismo is a film adaptation arriving in 2023 from PlayStation Productions. The story will center around a teenage Gran Turismo player whose consistent winning streak in the games put him through a series of Nissan competitions, where he eventually became a real-life professional driver.
- Release Date
- August 25, 2023
- Director
- Neill Blomkamp
- Cast
- Archie Madekwe , David Harbour , Orlando Bloom , Darren Barnet , Geri Halliwell Horner , Djimon Hounsou
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 135 Minutes
