US, Chinese filmmakers working on $80m Tetris-inspired blockbuster

By | 18 May, 2016

FILMMAKERS from the China and the U.S. are teaming up to bring popular video game Tetris to the big screen in what is tipped to become a science fiction blockbuster.

The 32-year-old game will be making its foray into the cinema with a US$80 budget, it was announced today.

The movie is the first from the newly formed Threshold Global Studios, a joint venture between Chinese entertainment investor Bruno Wu’s Seven Star Works and producer Larry Kasanoff’s California-based Threshold Entertainment Group, which produces live action movies.

The joint venture “will make cross-cultural movies for the global market,” the studio said in a statement on Tuesday.

Kasanoff said the game, which became a hit in the 1980s “is a perfect first project for this strategy”.

The movie, whose name was not mentioned in the release, follows in the mold of such computer game-inspired film productions as ‘Resident Evil’, ”Tomb Raider’ and ‘Mortal Kombat’.

SEE ALSO: French game developers are creating a ‘dystopian’ Hong Kong cat adventure

But unlike the other adaptations that made it big in the box office, the original tile-matching puzzle game did not have a story-line or even characters.

Released in 1984, Tetris was originally designed Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. Image via Wiki Commons.

Released in 1984, Tetris was originally designed Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. Image via Wiki Commons.

Shooting will begin next year and financing is complete, the statement said, and there are plans to film in China and feature Chinese actors.

Kasanoff has previously produced two ‘Mortal Kombat’ movies. Wu is founder and CEO of Sun Seven Stars Media Group, a private media and entertainment investment company in China.

Additional reporting by Associated Press



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