GTPlanet’s video editor Chaz Draycott has been speaking to racing driver, GTPlanet member, and now official advisor to Hollywood (at least as far as racing flicks go) David Perel over his role in the development of the Gran Turismo movie.
If you’re a regular GTPlanet reader, it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that the Gran Turismo film launches globally today. It’s a subject we’ve been covering for pretty much a decade at this point, and for most of that time it’s a project that’s seemed to be mired in development hell.
Just over a year ago though, there was some sudden progress, with the film added to the slate for 2023 and star director Neill Blomkamp — best known for the Oscar-nominated District 9 — taking the helm for the movie which was to be based on the career of GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough.
Perel, who’s been a GTPlanet member since 2003 and drives in GT3 class for the AF Corse team, heard about the movie and Blomkamp’s involvement through GTPlanet’s article.
As it turns out, Perel actually knew Blomkamp through a family connection and fired an email over to his fellow South African to see if his knowledge of both sim racing — as founder of both Coach Dave Academy and SimGrid — and real-world racing would be of help.
Blomkamp subsequently brought Perel on board as an adviser, and you can hear more from the man himself on what that entailed in our video above.
There’s some fascinating insight on the development of the movie, covering not only Perel’s role in coaching the actors in driving and sim racing, the crew’s passion for cars (Blomkamp drives a Honda NSX NA1), and some of the Easter Eggs that didn’t make the cut…
See more articles on Gran Turismo Movie.
