Fantasy to reality: The Darlington roots of racing driver who inspired Gran Turismo biopic
The son of a former Darlington footballer will see his life played out on the big screen when biopic film Gran Turismo hits cinemas.
The movie tells the story of Jann Mardenborough, who turned his love of video games into a reality by becoming a professional racing driver in the Japanese Super GT series.
Mardenborough is the son of former Darlington footballer Steve Mardenborough, who is still a cult figure to Quaker fans for helping the team back into the football league after playing for them more than 100 times.
Opening on Wednesday 9 August, Gran Turismo stars Orlando Bloom, Stranger Things' David Harbour, Archie Madekwe, whose previous credits include Midsommmar and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell Horner.
Speaking ahead of the movie's release, Mardenborough said: "I hope it shows kids that look like me that they can trust themselves and can go after what they love.”
In 2011, Mardenborough became the third and youngest winner of the reality gaming GT Academy competition, beating 90,000 other entrants.
The reward for the 19-year-old was a drive for Nissan at the Dubai 24 Hour race. He went on to race in the Formula 3 European Championship, the GP3 Series and GP2 Series.
In the film, Mardenborough is played by British actor Archie Madekwe. Meanwhile, Mardenborough will appear on screen as his stunt driver.
Describing the character, Madekwe said: "He feels trapped. He’s in a rut in his small town where the same thing happens every day. But he has a burning passion and desire to achieve more than his circumstances allow.
"He’s obsessed with cars, and he loves Gran Turismo. The only thing he’s ever wanted to do is to be a driver, but that’s a world that’s never been accessible to him until he’s presented with an opportunity, an experiment, to train gamers to be real race-car drivers.”
His famous footballing father is played by two-time Oscar nominee, Djimon Hounsou and spicing up the role of Jann's mother is Geri Halliwell Horner. Better known as Ginger Spice, she is also familiar with the racing world as she is married to F1 boss Christian Horner.
She said: "When I read the script, I was inspired by how the story was so full of struggle, family, heart - following your passion in life takes courage. We all want to be supported by our friends, our family, and to strike out into the world is hard.
"Jann is a really kind, ordinary boy who's got a passion and he goes for it. And he just wants approval from his parents desperately.”
Stranger Things' David Harbour plays Jann's initially-reluctant trainer, Jack Salter, with Orlando Bloom heading up the Hollywood heavyweights as the Nissan marketing executive who came up with the idea to put console gamers behind the wheel of real GT cars.
Speaking about his character Bloom said: “He’s all-heart, all-passion. He’s driven by this harebrained dream to take sim car racers and get them into real cars, racing on tracks.
“He’s the number-one fan of racing. When you dream hard enough, anything seems possible. It’s a lot of fun to play a guy like that, full of hope, drive, and passion. He has a joie de vivre, an idealistic mind, and that’s a wonderful headspace to be in."
Bloom added: "I think anybody who’s ever had an idea – a dream – a vision for the future – will recognise that in Danny. The way that you can get excited about anything, even before taking the first step on a journey. Maybe even especially then, before you’ve realized what a big job you’ve taken on.”
Executive producer, Matt Hirsch used 22 hero cars and 65 cars in total in the fleet to make the movie happen but it was a challenge to overcome as director Neill Blomkamp told Hirsch he wanted to do everything for real.
Hirsch said: "My jaw dropped. How would we accomplish this? How do we put actors in race cars going 140 miles per hour down a racetrack? Is that safe? Can we do that? What began as a challenging movie became even more challenging, figuring out how to make Neill’s vision for the movie a reality.”
Car featured in the film include a Lamborghini Huracan GT3; Ferrari 488 GT3 EFO; McLaren 720S GT3; Aston Martin Vantage V8 and Ford Mustang GT3. There are also prototype cars used and specifically for younger drivers such as a Ligier JS PX; Ligier JS P320; Ligier JS and a P2 Norma M30.
Credit: Sony Pictures