'RED' Writers Board Sony's 'Gran Turismo' Movie

A film adaptation of the driving video game Gran Turismo has been in the works for a couple years now, and the project is now shifting gears with a new pair of writers being brought on board.

Previously, Watchmen writer Alex Tse was brought on board the project, but now it will be RED screenwriting duo Jon and Erich Hoeber are now scripting the film that will be directed by Oblivion and TRON Legacy helmer Joseph Kosinski.

THR has news of recently Gran Turismo movie writers, which is being produced by The Social Network and Fifty Shades of Grey producer Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti along with Josh Bratman, DeVon Franklin and Elizabeth Cantillon. However, this update doesn't bring any new details, though previously Kosinski was said to be tossing out the old script by Tse, which followed a gamer who becomes race car driver.

So we don't really know what the story will be at this point, and the video game doesn't have much of a story since it's just a very realistic driving simulator. Unlike most video game movies, the story could go anywhere and be anything and doesn't need to strictly adhere to any story beats to satisfy fans. That essentially means that the Gran Turismo title isn't anything but brand recognition, but Hollywood loves that kind of stuff.

This also means that Jon and Erich Hoeber have their work cut out for them, but this won't be the first time they've expanded a brand name into a feature film, because they also wrote the Battleship movie for Universal Pictures, for better or worse. They took a simple board game and turned it into an alien invasion action flick, so maybe they'll bring werewolves or something into Gran Turismo, or take the game to space. Wait, why isn't there a racing movie like Cannonball Run in space? Are you listening Hollywood?

The Hoebers know how to write a movie that's a lot of fun, though not with a lot of depth, so I wouldn't expect anything mind-blowing on the story side of things. The same can be said for Joseph Kosinski for the most part as well. His movies TRON Legacy and Oblivion look great and are a blast to watch, but they're not the most original sci-fi stories.

Anyway, Gran Tursimo still has a long way to go before getting in front of cameras, so it'll probably be awhile before we get a substantial update on the project.