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Tetris film announced for Apple TV+ with worldwide premiere at SXSW

The film will follow a young Henk Rogers and his initial efforts to acquire the rights to Tetris.

Morgan Shaver

February 1, 2023 1:00 PM

PBS Hawaii

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A Tetris movie has been announced for Apple TV+ with a worldwide premiere set to take place this year at the SXSW Conference that’s being held in Austin, Texas from Mar 10 through March 19. The film will follow a young Henk Rogers, played by Taaron Egerton, and Alexey Pajitnov played by Nikita Efremov. While the announcement was scarce in regards to details about the film, the story will seemingly detail Rogers’ eventful journey to Russia to acquire the rights to Tetris.

#Tetris, a new Apple Original Film, is based on the incredible true story of one of the most iconic video games in the world.

Premiering worldwide at @SXSW. Coming soon to Apple TV+ pic.twitter.com/27YYnzc8ln

— Apple TV+ (@AppleTVPlus) February 1, 2023

The pair actually talked about what happened in detail back at D.I.C.E. Summit in 2015. If you haven’t listened to the tale as told by Rogers and Pajitnov, it’s honestly fascinating. During the Summit talk, Rogers explains things like how the rights were passed around between different companies such as Academy Soft and Mirror Soft, to Spectrum Holobyte, and eventually to Rogers in Japan.

Rogers then goes on to explain how he tracked the likes of Elektronorgtechnica down in Moscow, hired an interpreter, made his way into the building, and then proceeded to go through a whole host of other unique circumstances in the process of obtaining the rights to Tetris. Again, the D.I.C.E. Summit talk with Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov in 2015 is extremely insightful, and gives those curious as to what the Apple TV+ film might showcase a helpful rundown of things like Rogers’ trip to Russia.

Stay tuned for more on the Tetris film, as we’ll be sure to update you with our thoughts once the worldwide premiere debuts at SXSW later this March. Until then, check out some of our previous Tetris-related coverage Tetris: The Grand Master finally getting a console release outside of Japan, and how a NES Tetris player smashed previous score records and captured first ever glitched colors.

Morgan Shaver

Senior Editor

Morgan is a writer from the frozen wastelands of Maine who enjoys metal music, kpop, horror, and indie games. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver.