Threshold Entertainment has confirmed that a live-action rendition of Tetris — Alexey Pajitnov’s seminal 1984 puzzle title — is in the works, and will release across theaters at some point in the very near future. (Are we sure it’s not April 1st?)
The rather surprising announcement comes via The Wall Street Journal, who spoke to Larry Kasanoff, Threshold’s CEO, about the nature and scale of the big-screen adaptation.
“It’s a very big, epic sci-fi movie. This isn’t a movie with a bunch of lines running around the page. We’re not giving feet to the geometric shapes.”
At this stage, the film is yet to enlist a director or cast. Nonetheless, we understand that Kasanoff helped drag Mortal Kombat kicking and screaming onto the screen twenty years ago. In 1995, the movie took home over $120 million worldwide while its lacklustre sequel only mustered $51 million two years later.
In terms of Tetris, it’s hard (read: next to impossible) to envision what the final product will be like come release. Either way, it’s a safe bet that the theme music will be stuck in your head once again should the studio choose to incorporate it into the eventual release. Speaking of which, Kasanoff also touched upon the strength of Tetris as a globally recognized IP.
“Brands are the new stars of Hollywood,” Kasanoff said. “We have a story behind Tetris which makes it a much more imaginative thing.”
Without doubt, Tetris is one of the most endearing brands in the business and remains to this day the highest-selling title in video game history — stacking up over 140 million sales across four platforms. The game is also due to arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One via Ubisoft, though it’s unclear when the French publisher plan to release the HD version.
With the Tetris brand now celebrating its 30th anniversary, what better way to honour the game’s monumental success that to commit it to celluloid, right?