There have been a number of video games that have made for fantastic cinematic adaptations, but all about the first trailer for Sony’s upcoming Grand Touring movie from director Neill Blomkamp makes the movie look like a showcase of reasons why racing sims don’t need to be turned into movies.
Caught somewhere between a video game adaptation and a coming-of-age story, Grand Touring tells the true story about teenagers Grand Touring player Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) actually became a professional racing driver after winning a series of racing game competitions. The trailer introduces Jann pre-fame as he still lives at home with his father Steve (Djimon Hounsou) and his mother Lesley (Geri Halliwell) and spends more time with his friends than his parents would like.
While Jann can feel how to turn his virtual ride into the real thing, his working-class folks insist he has his head in the clouds. But when Jann decides to enter the GT Academy competition, it isn’t long before motorsports director Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) notices the boy’s talent and pairs him with trainer Jack Salter (David Harbour).
While the trailer certainly sells Grand Touring‘s ability to race real cars in a cool way it also highlights what feels like a really thin plot consisting of people dunking a kid for liking racing games before proving his haters wrong by joining the major leagues. Grand Touring may be based on a true story, but when it hits theaters on August 11, it will almost certainly stand out as an example of one of those Video Game Movies™ people who go on a rampage because they don’t feel like something anyone has asked for.