The streets of Aberdeen have been transformed into Cold War-era Russia as cameras roll on big-budget Hollywood movie Tetris.
The movie – about the origins of the legendary videogame – stars Taron Egerton and is directed by Peterhead’s Jon S Baird.
Filming is set to start over the weekend on Tillydrone Avenue, outside the zoology building.
Yesterday crew could be seen preparing the location, with vintage cars parked along the road and old Soviet phoneboxes brought to the street outside the Aberdeen University building.
The road has been closed in both directions until 11.59pm on Monday.
After filming has finished at the zoology building, other parts of the city will double as the Soviet Union, including Seamount Court on the Gallowgate.
Seamount Road, next to the high-rise, will be closed for its entire length from 7am on Monday until 8pm on Thursday, February 25.
Director Jon – whose previous movie Stan and Ollie made its terrestrial TV debut on BBC One last night – tweeted an image of the film’s clapboard yesterday afternoon to mark the start of filming in his home city.
Filming in a 🏴city near you. pic.twitter.com/ASSzI8hCNP
— Jon S. Baird (@jonsbaird) February 19, 2021
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.
“It’s really exciting for the profile of the area and the economy. In the long run, it may pave the way for a lot more things coming up 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 and all that.”
Kingsman and Rocketman star Egerton plays Henk Rogers, a Dutch software engineer who first distributed the game to consoles.
It’s got a thriller aspect to it and has real heart. It’s kind of a buddy movie as well.
Jon previously said the film – which is funded by tech giant Apple and produced by film director Matthew Vaughn’s Marv Films – is the biggest of his career to date.
He said: “It’s a true story, set in the late 1980s, and is in the vein of The Social Network and The Big Short. It’s got a thriller aspect to it and has real heart. It’s kind of a buddy movie as well.
“The story is set over different countries but Scotland has thrown up some great locations that double for the places.”
Shooting has already commenced in Glasgow, with parts of Morrison Street transformed into a Soviet road for the movie, complete with vintage Ladas and military signage.
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