Gran Turismo Movie Trailer Sees Orlando Bloom and David Harbour Turn Gamers Into Racers

Buckle up — the first trailer for Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo movie is here, revving the hype ahead of its theatrical debut in August.

Legolas and Hopper might be the iconic duo you never knew you needed until now, but the new trailer for Gran Turismo: The Movie pairs Orlando Bloom with David Harbour as they hit the asphalt in an attempt to turn gamers into racers, inspiring plenty of high-octane action.

Based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough and the PlayStation Studios games, the movie is the ultimate wish-fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver.

Alongside the trailer, Sony Pictures shared a new poster for the upcoming racing movie, featuring Harbour as Jack Salter, a retired racecar driver who mentors Archie Madekwe’s Jann, pictured in the center alongside Bloom’s Danny Moore, a motorsport marketing exec.

The Gran Turismo movie is an adaptation of the video game series of the same name that began in 1997 on the first PlayStation. Blomkamp recently spoke to PlayStation about the innovative camerawork he devised to take The Real Driving Simulator to the silver screen.

“It really came down to creating something that would just be cool to watch on a large cinema screen, and for that we doubled down on FPV drones to carry IMAX sensor-approved cameras,” he revealed. “There’s a ton of airborne, high-speed drone work in the film, and we utilized a pursuit-arm mounted to a high-speed vehicle. In this case, we actually mounted it to an R35 GTR, which could actually keep pace (pretty much) with a lot of the GT3 cars in the film.

“I was also obsessed with recreating camera angles players know from the game: so, for the third-person chase perspective, we built an R1 rig that could position a camera such that the entire car would fit within the frame,” he added. “To capture the driver’s POV (cockpit view), our stunt driver would lie back so we could mount a camera where his head should be. We liked including nods to the game in these kinds of ways.”

Gran Turismo will race into theaters on August 11.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.