Apple's recently-released Tetris movie has found itself in the middle of a legal tussle thanks to the efforts of Gizmodo editor-in-chief Dan Ackerman, who has claimed that the film is an unauthorised adaptation of his book, The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World (thanks, The Guardian).
Released in 2016, Ackerman's book charts the story of Alexey Pajitnov's famous puzzler, from its creation in Soviet Russia to its eventual licencing to Nintendo, which bundled it with the Game Boy to amazing commercial success.
"Dan Ackerman reveals how Tetris became one of the world's first viral hits, passed from player to player, eventually breaking through the Iron Curtain into the West," reads the book's synopsis. "British, American, and Japanese moguls waged a bitter fight over the rights, sending their fixers racing around the globe to secure backroom deals, while a secretive Soviet organization named ELORG chased down the game's growing global profits."
If you've already seen Apple's Tetris movie – which is directed by Jon S. Baird and stars Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers and Nikita Yefremov as Alexey Pajitnov – then the narrative presented in Ackerman's book will be very familiar. Both are based on the real-world battle to secure the rights to Tetris, but Ackerman claims he sent a pre-production edition of his book to the Tetris Company in 2016, which he says then copied it for the movie – and threatened to sue him if he tried to create his own movie or TV version.
Ackerman claims the company refused to license its IP for projects related to the book and actively dissuaded producers who were interested in adapting it for film and TV. Furthermore, it sent him a "strongly worded cease and desist letter."
Ackerman's suit – filed in the Manhattan federal court – is seeking damages equaling at least 6% of the film’s $80m budget. The complaint states that The Tetris Company CEO, Maya Rogers (Henk's daughter) and screenwriter Noah Pink copied Ackerman’s book to forge the Tetris screenplay, with work beginning in 2017, the year after the book's publication. Ackerman claims the film has "liberally borrowed numerous specific sections and events of the book" and was "similar in almost all material respects" to it.
The lawsuit "aims to right a wrong and provide the respect and justice to the work, diligence and ownership of someone who is entitled to such respect and acknowledgment under the law," according to Ackerman’s attorney, Kevin Landau.
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[source theguardian.com]
Comments 5
Wait, if the book is not fictional, then aren't they just copying... history? Isn't that the whole point? I can believe them using the book as a source of information, and the author should be compensated for it. But kind of sounds like they're surprised that a movie based on the same events as the book has similarities to it
This is why the Tetris movie originally should had been about the Tetris and not about the game of the Tetris. A story about the Tetris would had been fictional and legit but a documentary about Tetris will had similar story to other documentary materials out there such as Dan Ackerman's book and the Gaming Historian's video.
This lawsuit sounds like a whiner trying to get a piece of the pie. Like @KoopaTheGamer stated, this is a (with artistic liberties, embellishing etc.) retelling of a part of these two guys' (Henk and Alexey) lives. That writer doesn't own those events nor the idea....
It is kind of absurd he would actually sue the people and the actual entity that owns Tetris for making a movie about their own story and game, while they are still alive no less.
That author should be happy he even got money for writing a book about this pretty cool moment in history and be honored that some of it mirrors what The Tetris Company put into their own movie.
I will retract my comment if the author in this lawsuit had that (dumb, unnecessary) car chase in his book, and the other issues with timeline and shuffling of events (not sure if new characters were added in the movie, but if yes, then those too). Then that could be argued as stealing, since they were fictional and fabricated as specific plot devices in his version of the story.
What a dumb lawsuit. Even if his book was the only source used for the movie (which is unlikely), it’s non-fiction and the author is owed nothing. The movie also added fictionalized elements that were, presumably, not in the book. The Tetris story is well known and has been written about in books and articles besides The Tetris Effect for decades.
Did anyone commenting read the part about the Tetris Company going out of their way to tell Ackerman they'd sue him if he tried to make a movie or TV series and refused to license out for the book, yet just one year later, they make their own movie that's very similar to the book?
Come on, fiction or history, it's obvious Tetris Company got the inspiration for the movie from the book. Timeline of events is way too coincidental (and again, making every effort to stop Ackerman from doing it himself after he sent them a copy).
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