Yes, a 'Tetris' Movie Is Really Happening

A sci-fi Tetris movie has been the punchline to several fake movie trailers on YouTube over the years. However, it's looking like the joke is about to become an unironic reality: a big-screen adaptation of the 80s videogame is headed to theaters at some point in the near future.

Yes, a Tetris movie is in the works from Threshold Entertainment and the Tetris Company. And while no director, writer or cast has been announced just yet, the film apparently has a story already.

“It’s a very big, epic sci-fi movie,” said Threshold CEO Larry Kasanoff. “This isn’t a movie with a bunch of lines running around the page. We’re not giving feet to the geometric shapes.”

And if the film is a success, Kasanoff is looking to expand the franchise beyond films.

“We certainly have the canvas for location-based entertainment based on the epicness,” Kasanoff declares. “What you [will] see in ‘Tetris’ is the teeny tip of an iceberg that has intergalactic significance.”

This wouldn't be Kasanoff's first foray into video game movies either, as he was the man behind the Mortal Kombat film franchise. Of course, whether you want to kiss him or condemn him for that is entirely up to you, since the films had some truly dodgy quality, and was part of a collection of early 90s films (along with 1993's Super Mario Bros. and 1994's Street Fighter) that essentially killed the concept of movies based on video games. Still, the movies managed to perform admirably at the box office, for their time. Mortal Kombat earned $70 million in 1995. Although 1997's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation only took in $35 million (just half of the first film's total), the gross did nothing to disabuse Kasanoff of the notion that brands are far more lucrative than concepts or stars.

“Brands are the new stars of Hollywood,” says Kasanoff. “We have a story behind ‘Tetris’ which makes it a much more imaginative thing.”

Eh, we'll believe it when we see it. Until then, we're going to watch the fake trailers below and think back on the days before a Tetris movie was something that could plausibly happen.

Via: Wall Street Journal

Credit: The Tetris Company