If you missed the announcement back in the summer, Sony have been feeling a fast and furious need for speed recently, putting a movie version of their flagship Gran Turismo game franchise into development. While little (nothing) is yet known about the direction in which the film's hot wheels will be spinning, it does now have a screenwriter in current Hollywood wonderboy Alex Tse{
Tse has made himself a sought-after name despite the fact that few of his screenplays have been made so far. Zack Snyder's Watchmen (including its animated companion piece Tales Of The Black Freighter) is his only palpable hit to date, but he's since worked on the upcoming Crow and **Highlander **remakes; adaptations of the anime Ninja Scroll, the graphic novel Battling Boy, Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man and the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth; and Gangland, an action thriller for Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle production company.
Game developers Polyphony Digital have been making Gran Turismo games for over 16 years now, with the latest in the colossal-selling franchise, Gran Turismo 6, due out on December 6. Like Need For Speed (currently roaring towards us from Legendary) it's actually a blank slate for filmmakers, since the games are not story based and feature no human characters. Need For Speed has taken its source's cross-country map as its starting point. Tse's Gran Turismo angle remains to be seen.
The Captain Phillips team of Michael De Luca, Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti are producing, but there's no start date yet. Need For Speed is out in the UK on March 14 next year.