While the Sonic the Hedgehog films and The Super Mario Bros. Movie might be video game adaptations that are fun for the whole family, the Tetris film will be intended for more mature audiences. Officially, the film has been rated R with "language" specified as the only reason given, via FilmRatings.com. So while that suggests there won't be gratuitous nudity coupled with blood and gore, the film will apparently be laden with enough swear words to push it past the PG-13 rating.Filmgoers will have questions about how a Tetris film could work, but it is a movie that focuses more on the battle for the rights to the video game rather than a story about anthropomorphic blocks banding together to solve puzzles. Given the recognition of the brand, there have been efforts going back several years to get the movie adaptation off the ground. It was announced in 2014 that a Tetris film was in the works, envisioned as the first of an epic sci-fi adventure trilogy. That incarnation of the film wound up getting lost in development hell.Plans resumed to make a Tetris film in 2020, as it was reported Taron Egerton had been cast to play a lead role in the adaptation. According to that report, he'd be playing Henk Rogers, a co-founder of the Tetris Company, in a film scripted by Noah Pink. Jon S. Baird was also attached to direct with Matthew Vaughn and Leonard Blavatnik producing. Apple picked up the film in 2020 and Baird announced in March 2021 that filming had wrapped."That's a wrap on Tetris. It's been emotional," Baird said on social media.Separately, Egerton announced, "Done! We made a whole movie in a pandemic and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone involved."
The Tetris Movie Delves Into the Battle Over the Rights
The Tetris film also stars Nikita Efrenov, who plays Alexey Pajitnov, the Russian programmer who first created the game in 1984. In the coming years, the rights to the game had been kept out of Pajitnov's reach until reverting back to him in 1996. That year, Pajitnov founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing. The Tetris movie will focus primarily on this legal battle.
Tetris becomes the latest video game to get an adaptation. Just recently, HBO released a trailer for The Last of Us, an anticipated series based on the video game of the same name. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is also coming out in 2023 and a third Sonic the Hedgehog film will be released in 2024 after a Knuckles-centric spinoff hits HBO Max in 2023.
Tetris will be released in March 2023.