Filming for Hollywood movie Tetris has begun in Aberdeen today.
Classic Russian cars have been spotted in Tillydrone Avenue as parts of the city are transformed into Soviet-era Russia.
Peterhead-born director Jon S. Baird has taken the cast and crew of Tetris to the Granite City.
This afternoon, the director shared an image of the movie’s clapperboard to mark the star of filming on his home turf.
Filming in a 🏴city near you. pic.twitter.com/ASSzI8hCNP
— Jon S. Baird (@jonsbaird) February 19, 2021
The film stars Rocketman actor Taron Egerton as Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers and tells the story of the creation of the groundbreaking game.
A number of roads around the city will be closed, starting with Tillydrone Avenue, which will be shut from tonight until Monday morning.
Falling Blocks (film about Tetris, set in the USSR) crew now shooting in Aberdeen, after Glasgow. Very cool, but also confirms that we have some awful architecture if it is reminiscent of 1980s Russia 😂 pic.twitter.com/vXVjL2NWEO
— Glen Reid (@reidser307) February 19, 2021
Filming is also taking place around George Street and King Street, with measures being put in place to stop motorists from venturing onto those streets and the surrounding areas.
The shoot is expected to last for about a week.
In November Baird told the Evening Express he was hoping to shoot parts of the movie in the Granite City.
He said: “I’ve got a real desire to put Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire on the map as a filming location. I really want to light the fuse in a way to start seeing big productions coming here.
“We’d be up in the city for a good week-and-a-half to two weeks and we’d be bringing money to the economy because the crew for something like this is about 300 people and we’d need to put them up in hotels and feed them.”
Filming for Tetris has already been taking place in Glasgow, with the city’s Morrison Street being transformed into a Soviet street for the movie, complete with vintage cars and military signage.
Similar dressing up will be done to Aberdeen, with filming also expected to take plae in the city’s Gallowgate.
The movie is being funded by tech giant Apple and produced by film director Matthew Vaughn’s Marv Films.