Never Have I Ever breakout star Darren Barnet lands a new big project! Barnet has joined the high-revving cast of Gran Turismo, Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions’ feature adaptation of the best-selling racing video game. Darren will join the star-studded cast that features, David Harbour, Archie Madekwe and Orlando Bloom.
The upcoming Sony film is set to be directed by Neill Blomkamp who is best known for sci-fi movies such as District 9 and Elysium. Production begins this week in Hungary. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to reveal the news. The script has been co-written by Jason Hall, whose popular work is American Sniper, and Zach Baylin, best known for King Richard.
The upcoming film is based on a true story and described as the ultimate wish-fulfilment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won him a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race-car driver. Madekwe will star as the teen, with Harbour on board as the retired driver who teaches him to drive. Bloom is set to play the role of hungry marketing exec.
Barnet will play a racer who is ranked at the top at the GT academy and who is not thrilled to see the upstart teen excel. PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan, as well as Doug Belgrad and Dana Brunetti, are producing. Game creators Kazunori Yamauchi and Hall are executives producing. Sony’s racing film is scheduled to hit the theatres on August 11, 2023.
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For the unversed, Darren Barnet is popularly known to play heartthrob Paxton Hall-Yoshida on Never Have I Ever, which just wrapped shooting its fourth and final season. While it’s unknown exactly when the final instalment of the Netflix hit series will premiere, its third season dropped last month. The high school-set series, co-created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher, has performed well for the streamer, hitting No. 1 on the charts.
Barnet recently starred as the lead in Netflix’s romantic comedy Love Hard, which held the position as the No. 1 Netflix movie worldwide and is the lead and producer of the indie horror thriller feature Apophenia, which is currently in postproduction. The actor is just wrapped shooting a remake of 1980s classic Road House with Jake Gyllenhaal.