The new movie “Tetris” is not your typical video game adaptation. Instead of a live action-CGI adventure, the film explores the origin story of the popular strategy game with the unmistakable theme song. Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, the Dutch-born video game designer and entrepreneur who risked everything to negotiate with authorities in Soviet Russia for the rights to the world’s future block-falling obsession in the late 1980s.
“I’m doing that next,” jokes Egerton about the possibility of a live-action Tetris movie. “But yeah the movie’s called Tetris, and it’s in big bold font, so I can understand why people might think it’s more of a traditional video game movie.”
What sets “Tetris” apart is its thrilling Cold War thriller narrative. Directed by Jon S. Baird and produced by Matthew Vaughn, the film follows Rogers as he faces off against the KGB, Russian dignitaries, rival software and media companies, espionage, double-crosses, blackmail, and threats against his family. All of this is in the pursuit of scoring a lucrative deal for Nintendo and its soon-to-launch handheld Game Boy console.
