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- Dan Ackerman wrote the 2016 book “The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World.”
- And he’s accusing The Tetris Company of adapting his work into this year’s film about the video game.
- His lawsuit lists 22 similarities between the book and film, as well as the underlying plot.
The editor-in-chief of tech publication Gizmodo is accusing Apple and The Tetris Company of adapting his book about the video game into a movie without his permission.
Dan Ackerman filed the lawsuit in a New York district court on Monday, requesting damages of 6% of the film’s $80 million production budget, equal to $4.8 million.
He says “Tetris” — the film released in March starring Taron Egerton — utilizes the same characters, plot, and underlying themes as his 2016 book “The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World.”
And the lawsuit says Ackerman’s representatives sent his book to The Tetris Company’s PR firm, which was given to Tetris CEO Maya Rogers and used to create the film’s screenplay.
Then as Ackerman looked into licensing his book for film and television works, Tetris sent his agent a “a strongly worded Cease and Desist letter” threatening legal action while refusing to license the video game’s intellectual property, according to the suit.
The accusation that “Tetris” is adapted from Ackerman’s book is also based on a similar “focus on Cold War intrigue and placing an outsized role on the Russian government organization ELORG.”
22 similarities between the book and film are listed in the lawsuit, such as a “narrative invention” where Henk’s guide in the USSR turned out to be a KGB agent.
One conversation in the film is said to be lifted from Ackerman’s interview with the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov, while a scene showing the deal where Tetris was paired with Game Boy was “paraphrased” from Ackerman’s retelling, according to the suit.
Apple and The Tetris Company did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, sent outside US working hours.
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