There’s not much more that needs to be said to sell me on an idea for a movie beyond “James Franco playing Tommy Wiseau.”
Yup, that’s right! James Franco will be portraying the infamous man behind The Room, a now-cult-classic considered to be the worst movie ever produced. (Or is it The Big Lebowski’s long lost twin?) Franco is no stranger to near-perfect mimicry of ridiculous characters, and I can think of no one better to pull off such a role.
For anyone who is unaware of this film’s existence, it is the story of love and betrayal, and football in tuxedos, as Johnny (played by Wiseau himself) struggles with difficulties at work and in his interpersonal relationships. Is his future wife cheating on him? Is this random young adult actually his adopted son, who’s in trouble with drug dealers? What about his future mother-in-law definitely having breast cancer? You have to see it to believe it, especially when one of the major characters gets recast halfway through the film. It is simply ripe for parody, and a movie-within-a-movie seems like the perfect way to go about it.
The idea for The Disaster Artist comes as a result of Greg Sestero’s tell-all book by the same name, which details his experience on the set of The Room in the role of Mark. He’ll be played by Dave Franco in the movie, with Seth Rogen playing the director of The Room. The director of The Disaster Artist, meanwhile, will be James Franco himself, which is quite meta.
The teaser gives us the “behind-the-scenes” look at how one of the most iconic scenes (“oh hai, Mark!”) came to be:
I’m so here for this, and will likely be shoving my way into theaters the day of its release, December 1st. But what do you guys think? Can this live up to the hype, or is it simply going to ruin the formula for what was already perfect ironic enjoyment?
