Sometimes, it all feels like a dare. A dare along the lines of, say, a Hollywood exec saying “I dare you to make a movie about falling, different shaped block-things that must be formed just so to win.” And the other party in this hypothetical, a screenwriter for instance, may ask “win what?” and the response will be “exactly!”
That is how I imagined the conversation went when someone decided to make a film out of “Tetris,” a puzzle video game that has no narrative and allows college students to stare blankly at their phones to pass the time during boring lectures.
Here we are people, this has to be the bottom of the inspiration barrel in Hollywood, right? I mean, what’s next? A Hollywood blockbuster about paint drying? And not only is there a film about “Tetris” being made, it has an $80 million budget.
According to Deadline, “The plan is to film in China and other locations in 2017 with Chinese cast featured in the ensemble pic that’s billed as a sci-fi thriller.”
Adding to the madness of all this, there are plans to make a trilogy of films based on “Tetris.” According to the website Polygon, “Funding and a storyline are already in place for Tetris, which is reportedly planned as the first of a trilogy. The film is budgeted at $80 million, Deadline said, and will be the debut project from Threshold Global Studios.”
I would not be surprised if this is the first of a video game cinematic universe.
The JOE-DOWN 