Electronic Arts has sold more than 140 million copies of Need for Speed video games over the past 20 years. They have generated billions of dollars in retail sales, but EA never had as good a commercial for the racing series as the new Need for Speed movie that’s about to debut nationwide on March 14.
Need for Speed stars Aaron Paul
The film stars Aaron Paul, the Emmy-winning actor from the Breaking Bad television show. The director is Scott Waugh, the son of a Hollywood stuntman. Paul plays Tobey Marshall, a would-be racing star who has had lousy luck. He agrees to rebuild a dream car, a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, for the bad guy snob, Dino Brewster. Their egos clash, they race for the car, and a friend is killed in a fiery accident. That sets in motion a double-cross and then a cross-country trek for revenge and redemption. Unlike other films where the story is just an excuse for a car chase, this one has a finely tuned script.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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