Tetris Transitions to Sci-Fi Movie?

In what is potentially the most bizarre pitch for a film I’ve ever heard, Hollywood is trying to make an “epic” live-action movie from the game Tetris. I get it, the Transformers and G.I. Joe franchises worked out pretty well, but what kind of story are we able to tell from geometric shapes falling from the sky?

The Tetris company has teamed up with Threshold Entertainment to create a “very big, epic sci-fi movie” according to the CEO of Threshold, Larry Kasanoff. “This isn’t a movie with a bunch of lines running around the page. We’re not giving feet to geometric shapes.” So…what exactly is it? “We have a story behind Tetris,” he adds, “which makes it a much more imaginative thing.” Well, let’s hope so.

Tetris was invented in Moscow in 1984 by a Russian scientist named Alexey Pajitnov. It quickly became popular in the Soviet Union, and spread to North America and Europe. Then Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer and publisher, caught wind of the game and decided he had to have it. Rogers went to Moscow to obtain the rights to the Tetris title. He then made a landmark deal. He talked the CEO of Nintendo of America to bundle Tetris with their handheld gaming console, the Game Boy. He talked them out of their own game, Super Mario Bros. Rogers said to Business Insider, “‘If you want little boys to buy your machine include Mario, but if you want everyone to buy your machine, include Tetris.’ I guess it worked. People say Tetris made Game Boy and Game Boy made Tetris. Both statements are true.”

Of course we’re all familiar with the game, and sure it’s well-liked. Forgive me if I’m having trouble understanding how it’s going to be any good on the big screen. So far, the film has no writers, actors or directors attached, but you can bet I’m anxious to see what names “fall into place” in the future.

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