Unigram’s Gregor Cameron – Producer of the Tetris film – on why the story behind the brand was ripe for a movie

Gregor, it’s great to connect. First of all, how did the Tetris movie happen? What persuaded you that this was a story worth telling?
Well, in the back of my mind I had the thought that we were living with all sorts of different exciting technologies, but no-one has told the origin stories behind them. Of course, when you look into these things, some stories are more interesting than others… I tried to do a tech origin story with Shazam – while they were really nice people, there was absolutely no drama there!

Ha! So how did you find your way to Tetris?
Well, I was on a work trip to LA, and it was a disastrous trip, but I found a script that was relatively unattached. It was called Falling Blocks at that point. When I started reading it, I thought: ‘This can’t be true! Are you kidding me?’ I went straight to the Tetris Wikipedia page and started looking into it and that’s when I got excited… I couldn’t believe how interesting the story was.

I was also conscious of the fact that the gaming industry is bigger than both the film industry and the music industry put together. The games industry is huge; it’s fascinating. A few years ago, the BBC made a film about Grand Theft Auto and for various reasons it never told the story in the right way; it needed to have scale because it’s such a big industry. It needed to feel like a big film.

But really and truly, we noodled around with Tetris until Matthew Vaughn and MARV came on board and supersized the whole thing. Otherwise, it could’ve gone the same way as the BBC’s GTA film – it would’ve been a small film when it needed to be a big film.

Was the power of Tetris as a brand also influential in wanting to make this film?
Absolutely. It has huge name recognition. Mention it to anyone, they know about it. It’s part of all our lives. And it seems obvious to want to tell this story, but the project did languish for some time not being made.

Why do you think that was?
Well, lots of industries don’t look to each other. We started as a company that wanted to make film and TV with music and trying to take the walls down is important. Tetris is a logical example of looking further than the film industry and the sorts of stories the film industry usually tells.

Interestingly, Tetris and Air came out at similar times – both are ‘brand biopics’. Do you think culturally there’s an appetite for these kinds of stories at the moment?
In my career, it’s extraordinary how many times the same ideas have come out around the same time. It’s bizarre. Maybe it’s generational, where people who have grown up with certain things get to a point where they want to commission these kinds of projects.

And maybe, the era we’re in now, people want to investigate the stories behind their favorite brands. It’s a very current thing. What attracted us was the unbelievable drama of the Tetris story. What’s also clever – and I put this down to the Maya Rogers’ of this world – is the ability to take on a legacy like that and do different things with it.

On the legacy aspect, why do you think Tetris has endured and thrived over the decades?
Well, I’m old enough to remember how bad gaming was when it started. I used to pay money to play Defender at the local leisure center near my house. When Tetris arrived, it was unique in that it was a personal experience – you were challenging yourself, like golf. Also, it wasn’t a poor representation of a real-world thing, so it activated a different part of your brain.

What does a brand’s story need to translate into a compelling movie?
Drama is the short answer! The truth is that in the Tetris story, a lot of the drama comes from the external, meaning the times they were in. It’s made even more dramatic by the timing of when the film has come out, in relation to the awful events that have happened since.

The other thing to note is that Tetris is essentially a buddy film across the Iron Curtain – and the relationship at the heart of the film between Henk and Alexey has endured. When I met them, I was amazed by the fact they still have the same relationship and are the same people at heart. No two films are the same and no two brands are the same, but drama is key.

What dictates whether a story like this becomes a movie or TV series?
The shape of this story really lent itself to a feature film in terms of the quest and the resolution. After Tetris became successful, there’s probably less story to tell. It had a finite story. Whereas with a series drama, you’re looking for multiple characters and a story that could run for longer. To be frank, with TV, a lot of things get stretched – some would probably be better off as a feature film.

Gregor, this has been great. Before I let you go, one last question: What helps you have ideas? How do you fuel your creativity?
It’s guts – and I often come back to things. You can be initially interested in something, but it’s often important to live with it for a while. If it’s still interesting after a few weeks or months, then it’s worth investigating further. I started in live television and that’s an environment that just eats ideas – so generating ideas isn’t the problem… Sustaining an idea is the key.

What live TV shows did you get your start in?
Shows like The Word and The Big Breakfast, but it was only when I started making documentaries that I really got into storytelling. The first documentary I made was about Matt Stone and Trey Parker called Goin’ Down to South Park. It was made after their first series of South Park and it’s really funny. The origin story of South Park is really fascinating – I should maybe look them up and try to tell that as a drama!

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for that! Gregor – a huge thanks for this. And congrats again on Tetris.