Tetris filming falls into place as Scotland doubles for Russia

City streets in Glasgow were transformed into 1980s Moscow

The streets of Scotland have doubled for 1980s Russia in a new film about the creation of the video game Tetris.

Invented in Moscow in 1984, the new Apple TV movie charts how the game made its way out of the Soviet Union to become a global hit.

Covid derailed original location plans in 2021 so producers shot in Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Glasgow and Aberdeen instead.

The film's star Taron Egerton said Scotland having "greyness in abundance" was the ideal substitute for Moscow.

The filming in Aberdeen was special for director Jon S Baird who was born in the city.

He told BBC Scotland it gave him an "immense sense of pride".

The grey bricks of Glasgow city centre provided an ideal backdrop

Filming also took place outside the University of Aberdeen's zoology building

Baird, whose previous films include Filth and Stan & Ollie, added: "I will do anything to highlight that part of the country. We don't really have movies shot in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire.

"We were such a novelty for them, they were turning out in their hundreds to watch us film. It was really special. We found two or three of our best locations in Aberdeen."

Fellow Scot and film producer Gillian Berrie said the fact that Moscow is "littered with architecture designed by Scots" was a big help when choosing locations in Scotland.

Nikita Efremov, who plays the Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov in the film

The film tells the true story of how Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers, played by Taron Egerton, travels to the Soviet Union to join Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov, played by Nikita Efremov, to take the game to a world market.

Taron Egerton told the BBC: "Scotland isn't always blessed with sunny blue skies and there was a sense of wanting to make Moscow feel quite grey.

"Scotland does have a greyness in abundance, but bits of Glasgow share some architectural similarities to bits of Moscow so that worked quite well."

Tetris received £500,000 through Screen Scotland's production growth fund to support filming.