News

In case you hadn't noticed, cars are big business at the box office. The Fast and the Furious saga thunders ever onwards, with a seventh entry already planned. Meanwhile, for gamers, the Need for Speed movie, based on EA's evergreen racing series, is already shooting with Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul behind the wheel. There's even a Hot Wheels movie in the pipeline, based on those diddy die-cast toy cars.

Now SONY has decided it needs to get in on the vehicular action, with the news that the corporation's gaming division and movie studio are joining forces to bring Gran Turismo to the big screen. With 70 million games sold, that's obviously an audience Hollywood would love to tap into. The news, broken by Hollywood web site The Wrap, reveals that the Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti (The Social Network) will produce the movie.

What form will the movie take? Nobody knows, but given the simulator nature of the games it seems likely that the film won't be copying the knockabout mayhem of Need for Speed. Could the film draw from the real life GT Academy, where skilled gamers train to become real racing drivers? That's certainly the sort of underdog triumph storyline that movies love.

Whatever happens, the movie will have to wait until after Gran Turismo 6 comes out later this year. The game features 33 tracks with 71 configurations and 1200 cars. There's a demo out right now, which also doubles as an audition for this year's GT Academy intake. Who knows? Beat the records and you could even be a movie star...