Entertainment industry outlet Deadline has revealed more casting information about the upcoming Gran Turismo movie, with supercar YouTuber Emelia Hartford playing an unspecified role in the film.
With nearly a million subscribers to her YouTube channel, EmeliaHartford, Hartford is one of the biggest names in the performance car vlog world — particularly as a solo creator. Based in California, Hartford has a collection of supercars and performance cars, many with some wild modifications.
Indeed in one of her recent videos, Hartford explained to her viewers why she’d not produced a video in the last few weeks and was now sporting pink hair, stating she’d been out of the country due to filming “a major motion picture”.
It’s not clear what role Hartford will be playing, though she is an actor registered with the Screen Actors Guild and has previously appeared in some smaller productions than Gran Turismo. That means she’s likely to appear as a character rather than as herself.
Along with Hartford, Deadline also announced three other new cast members. Maeve Courtier-Lilley is another young British actor previously seen in UK hospital soap Casualty, Pepe Barroso is a Spanish television actor, and Korean actor Sang Heon Lee currently stars in the To All The Boys… spin-off TV series XO, Kitty.
They join a cast which includes Archie Madekwe (See), who’s playing a character inspired by Jann Mardenborough, while Djimon Hounsou (Shazam) and Geri Halliwell (Crank: High Voltage) play his parents.
David Harbour (Black Widow) will play Madekwe’s character’s racing mentor, while Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) is cast as a marketing executive. Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) is an unknown antagonist, currently listed by IMDB as “Matty Bloom”.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9) from a script by Jason Hall (American Sniper), Gran Turismo is inspired by the story of Jann Mardenborough who won the GT Academy competition in 2011 and went on to race at the top level of Prototype and GT categories.
Filming is already underway on location in Hungary, and the film is due for release on August 11, 2023.
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