Joseph Kosinski, director of science-fiction movies Oblivion and Tron: Legacy, is reportedly in early negotiations to helm the filming of Gran Turismo, which will be Sony Pictures Entertainment's adaptation of the long-running and massively popular racing video game series from the PlayStation.
The adaptation of Gran Turismo into the big screen is a favorite project of Michael De Luca, co-president of Columbia Pictures who was a producer for the film before joining Sony Pictures as the company's co-president of production alongside Hannah Minghella.
De Luca will remain a producer on the movie and will be joined by new Sony VP of creative production Matt Milam in overseeing its development.
Other producers joining De Luca are Josh Bratman, Dana Brunetti, Elizabeth Cantillon and DeVon Franklin.
Details of the movie's plot are still scarce, but at Gamescon 2013, Gran Turismo series lead designer Kazunori Yamauchi reportedly said that the film will revolve around a video game player that became a racer.
The movie reportedly features the real-life story of Spaniard Lucas Ordoñez, an MBA student that won the first GT Academy competition in 2008 and has since carved out a career as a professional race car driver.
The GT Academy competition was created by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Gran Turismo developer Polyphony Digital and Nissan Europe. The GT Academy is an international competition wherein the best gamers of Gran Turismo race against each other to land the chance of living out their dream as a professional race car driver. The competition has produced many successful race car drivers in the past few years.
However, the comments of Yamauchi were made when the script for the project was the one developed by Alex Tse. According to sources, Kosinski will develop a new script for the movie with the studio, but how much of it would be new is unknown.
Kosinksi has reportedly been aiming to direct a racing movie for some time, as he spent a few years in the development of a film based on A.J. Baime's Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans for Fox. The movie, which narrates the true story of the battle between Ford and Ferrari to win the prestigious Le Mans car race in 1966, had Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise circling to headline it. However, the project has been scrapped and Kosinski has moved on to look to direct another racing movie.
