eloved 1980s videogame Tetris coming to the big screen as an 'epic sci-fi movie’
Tetris is coming to the big screen. It’s official — we've already reached the point of ultimate saturation when it comes to videogame movie adaptations.
Threshold Entertainment has snagged the film rights to the 1980s puzzle game Tetris — yes, the one where you have to line up the lines and make them disappear — with plans to develop an “epic sci-fi” movie for the property. No, this does not seem to be a joke. For what it’s worth, the studio has a track record of cranking out game-to-movie properties, having previously developed 1995’s Mortal Kombat film and its sequel.
Aside from the fact that the movie is happening, the studio offered literally no other intel. Producer Larry Kasanoff teases they plan to turn the extremely simple game into an “epic sci‐fi story” that will be “really exciting.” Though even Kasanoff seems to acknowledge the absurdity of it all, promising they’re “not giving feet to the geometric shapes.”
OK, we’ll have to take your word on it.
Henk Rogers, managing director of The Tetris Company, had this to say about the movie deal:
“What started as a simple, computer puzzle game 30 years ago, today is part of our global consciousness, connecting people of all ages and backgrounds and feeding our innate desire to create order out of chaos. We look forward to partnering with Threshold Entertainment to re-imagine that common experience and bring a spectacular new Tetris universe to the big screen for the first time. In this new universe, as you'll soon find out, there's much more to Tetris than simply clearing lines.”
So what’s our take? Honestly, this sounds pretty dumb. We’ve seen some terrible videogame adaptations from properties that actually had potential to be cool — i.e. Doom, House of the Dead, the aforementioned Mortal Kombat — so what are the odds Tetris will turn out any better? If you have an “epic” idea for a sci-fi movie, just make that movie. Why try to shoehorn it into the construct of a super-simple 1980s puzzle game?
What’s your take on Tetris: The Movie?
