MEGA DRIVE

Jann Mardenborough's rise from bedroom gamer to Le Mans racer is the stuff of dreams... and now movies. Here's five things you need to know about the new Gran Turismo film, including whether it's any good

- VIJAY PATTNI

>1 IT'S NOT REALLY ABOUT THE GRAN TURISMO VIDEO GAME

While the thought of watching A Player grind out credits on Trial Mountain for nine hours straight in a grey Japanese sports car might feel like the most authentic Gran Turismo experience possible, that's not exactly exciting to watch. Which is the same thought that crossed director Neill Blomkamp's mind when first offered an early script for a Gran Turismo movie. "That literally makes no sense," he told TG. "And then I read the script, and thought 'Is this true?' So I researched Jann Mardenborough and the GT Academy, everything that Nissan and Polyphony did together, and thought 'Holy crap this is awesome"."

Indeed, the real life story of a shy young gamer winning an improbable racing simulator competition who then went on to race in real life at Le Mans is fairly incredible as narratives go.

"I should do this film," he said. Not least because outside of being a proper petrolhead - Blomkamp's owned every Nineties hero car you care to imagine, including the Honda NSX, E36 BMW M3 and Ferrari. F355 he's also a fan of car films, too.

"I loved Ford vs Ferrari, I like Steve McQueen's Le Mans, I'm totally into them, I just never thought it'd be me making one. Which is weird because I am obsessed with cars. I'm much more into cars than I am into racing. I had to learn about the various classifications - GT3, LMP2s and all that," he said.

>2 THE FILM'S STAR - ARCHIE MADEKWE, WHO PLAYS JANN MARDENBOROUGH HAD TO LEARN TO DRIVE 

"I couldn't drive before this job," he said. "I was filming another job, and every time I wrapped I'd run to a driving lesson at night. The producers kept phoning me asking if I'd passed. I did, the first time, thank God."