Everyone has heard of Tetris, but even the director of the new movie about one of the world’s most popular video games thought it was invented in Japan. When John S. Beard (Filth, Stan & Ollie) first read Noah Pink’s screenplay about high-stakes intellectual property rights commercial scrapping, word to him was that Tetris was made in the Soviet Union. He exclusively told Express.co.uk: “I was so shocked I thought, ‘I have to make this movie because I want people to feel what I felt when I first read the script. “
Computer engineer Alexei Pajitnov invented Tetris in 1984, but since he was a Soviet citizen, the game and its rights were in the hands of the authoritarian state and negotiated by the KGB.
The film follows Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer who sought a portable license for Tetris for use in Nintendo’s Game Boy. However, aside from the risks of bartering with the Soviet Union’s security services, the film also plots that he’s up against billionaire media baron Robert Maxwell and his son Kevin for the video game rights.
For accuracy, both Henk and Alexey (who founded Tetris together in the US) were consulted and approved for the film. Bird particularly liked that Dutch’s reaction to his movie was: “It’s 100 percent emotionally correct.” And while the director took artistic license with some scenes involving punch-ups and car chases, it turns out that some of the more scandalous moments could have been portrayed as even more gruesome than they were portrayed.
After Kevin Maxwell read the script, he said to Bird: “I think it’s a good script. There are a few things you could probably change but overall I like the script. But I think you could have gone a bit harder with my dad, Robert Maxwell.”
The director added, “I’m not going to tell you the words he actually used, but he said we could have gone a lot more.” Turns out, Kevin also thought the Soviet Union scenes were in a good place, but the KGB might have been horrified by all the following and tapings they were doing.
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Bird also thinks his Tetris movie is surprisingly timely with everything that’s going on with Russia right now. He said: “One of Putin’s biggest disappointments was being part of the KGB when the Soviet Union collapsed. [He’s now trying to] Rebuild an empire.
The director also noted how children today who did not grow up in the times of the Cold War would be reminded of the Ukrainian conflict and how dangerous those times were, especially if you dare to visit Russia in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, Baird is now gearing up for his next movie which he’s not at liberty to reveal yet, but he’s made fun of two of his favorite actors and “in the vein of Little Miss Sunshine.” As for other projects, he admitted: “I’d love to do one of the big musicals, that would be a dream come true for me.”
Tetris is streaming on Apple TV+ starting Friday.
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