Director Jon S. Baird on the new Apple TV+ movie, Tetris

The new Apple TV+ movie Tetris tells the unbelievable but true
story of how the video game became a worldwide phenomenon.
Entrepreneur Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) discovered Tetris in 1988
and partnered with Soviet inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov)
to bring the game from the USSR to the entire world. Tetris is a
fast-paced, compelling Cold War–era thriller as Henk and Alexey
race to outmaneuver their competitors who are determined to get to
the market first with the “perfect” video game. Director Jon Baird
loved the script for Tetris because it was fun, fast-paced, full of
political intrigue and family drama, yet based on reality. Jon
decided to shoot the film in Scotland, around his hometown of
Aberdeen. Moscow in the 1980's was a very gray place, where it
actually felt like someone had turned the color off. Jon worked
with his DP Alwin H. Küchler, and they decided to keep the color
palette desaturated in grays and browns. Aberdeen is often cloudy,
with gray granite buildings, making it a great place to substitute
Soviet-era Russia. Tetris producer Matthew Vaughn was very
instrumental in the post-production process, and they worked with
the visual effects team to put together just the right amount of
video game elements in the film. Jon grew up in a fishing town in
Scotland without any connection to the movie industry. His dad
loved musical theater so they would often go to London to see
plays. He loved the feeling seeing live theater and movies gave
him, and Jon knew he wanted to pursue a career in movies. Once he
was old enough, Jon moved to London and after a few years he found
a job as a production assistant, that eventually led to another job
at the BBC, learning as he went. His short film It's a Casual Life
led to a technical advisor position on Green Street Hooligans,
directed by Lexi Alexander, which became his big break. Jon has
also won a BAFTA for directing the film Stan & Ollie. Tetris
will be streaming on Apple TV+ on March 31. Sponsored by Hot Rod
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