Apple TV+ finally unveiled the trailer for Tetris, based on the true story of how the groundbreaking 80s puzzle game became a global phenomenon. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, Taron Egerton stars as Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who was instrumental in discovering Tetris and securing its distribution rights.
Soviet Software engineer Alexey Pajitnov invented the game in 1984. Communist law, however, dictated that the game belonged to the people of the Soviet Union rather than Pajitnov himself. Rogers then traveled to the Soviet Union and negotiated directly with the Regime. It quickly became a worldwide phenomenon and Nintendo bundled it with the launch of its then-revolutionary Game Boy handheld.
Tetris is a puzzle game in which geometric shapes called “tetrominoes” fall down onto a playing field, and the player has to arrange them to form gapless lines. Pajitnov took inspiration from pentomino, a classic puzzle game consisting of all the different shapes that you can make by combining five squares – 12 in total – with the goal of arranging them in a wooden box like a jigsaw puzzle.
The film sees some legendary figures of the early video game business portrayed on-screen, including British media tycoon Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam), Nintendo America boss Howard Lincoln and Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi (Togo Igawa).
The film was announced almost a decade ago and has finally made its way to completion. Larry Kasanoff, a former producer of the film, had initially announced a trilogy of movies, but this no longer appears to be the case.
Jon S. Baird directs the film, with producers Matthew Vaughn, Gillian Berrie, Claudia Vaughn, Len Blavatnik and Gregor Cameron. Tetris will stream on Apple TV+ from March 31.
