More casting news for the new Gran Turismo movie is emerging, with Hollywood Reporter — again — announcing that American actor Darren Barnet will play an important role in the film.
Barnet is probably best known for his leading role in Netflix teen comedy-drama Never Have I Ever in which he stars as Paxton Hall-Yoshida, love interest of main character Devi Vishwakumar.
However he’ll also be recognized by fans of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD as a younger version of future villain Wilfred Malick, as Max in the bizarrely Zoom-filmed Untitled Horror Movie, and as the first ever male brand ambassador for Victoria’s Secret “Pink”.
It’s the fourth piece of casting news we’ve heard regarding Gran Turismo thus far, with the story — penned by Jason Hall (American Sniper) and Zach Baylin (King Richard) — seeming to be an adaptation of Jann Mardenborough’s experiences.
Mardenborough won GT Academy in 2011, going on to have a glittering motorsport career in which he raced in the fastest closed-cockpit cars in the world — including the Super GT championship in Japan, and the top-class LMP1-H Nissan GT-R at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Archie Madekwe has been cast in the role of a teenage gamer who wins a Nissan gaming competition and becomes a real-life racing driver. Stranger Things star David Harbour will play a retired driver who is his mentor, with Orlando Bloom as a marketing executive.
According to HR, Barnet will be cast in the role of “a racer who is ranked at the top at the GT academy and who is not thrilled to see” Madekwe’s character taking the spotlight — although the real GT Academy didn’t exactly work like that, so we’ll be interested to see how the writers resolve it.
Gran Turismo is scheduled for a premier on August 11 2023, and doubtless we’ll hear much more over the next 11 months.
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