James Franco To Direct A Film Based On The Making Of Tommy Wiseau’s ‘The Room’
Briefly: Here’s some interesting news for a slow, slow Saturday (aside from that cool Gotham casting anyways).
James Franco’s Rabbit Bandini production company has just picked up the film rights to The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, a book that digs deep into the production of what many consider the worst film of all-time, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room.
Here’s the synopsis for the book, which was written by actor Greg Sestero and journalist Tom Bissell:
Nineteen-year-old Greg Sestero met Tommy Wiseau at an acting school in San Francisco. Wiseau’s scenes were rivetingly wrong, yet Sestero, hypnotized by such uninhibited acting, thought, “I have to do a scene with this guy.” That impulse changed both of their lives. Wiseau seemed never to have read the rule book on interpersonal relationships (or the instructions on a bottle of black hair dye), yet he generously offered to put the aspiring actor up in his LA apartment. Sestero’s nascent acting career first sizzled, then fizzled, resulting in Wiseau’s last-second offer to Sestero of costarring with him in The Room, a movie Wiseau wrote and planned to finance, produce, and direct—in the parking lot of a Hollywood equipment-rental shop.
Wiseau spent $6 million of his own money on his film, but despite the efforts of the disbelieving (and frequently fired) crew and embarrassed (and frequently fired) actors, the movie made no sense. Nevertheless Wiseau rented a Hollywood billboard featuring his alarming headshot and staged a red carpet premiere. The Room made $1800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. One reviewer said that watching The Room was like “getting stabbed in the head.”
The Disaster Artist is Greg Sestero’s laugh-out-loud funny account of how Tommy Wiseau defied every law of artistry, business, and friendship to make “the Citizen Kane of bad movies” (Entertainment Weekly), which is now an international phenomenon, with Wiseau himself beloved as an oddball celebrity. Written with award-winning journalist Tom Bissell, The Disaster Artist is an inspiring tour de force that reads like a page-turning novel, an open-hearted portrait of an enigmatic man who will improbably capture your heart.
Franco has signed on to direct the film, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who we’re recently in the news themselves for a long-awaited project) are set to produce?
Have you seen the film? Would you watch a movie about its creation? Sound out below!
http://youtu.be/yCj8sPCWfUw
Source: Deadline
