A new promo for The Disaster Artist shows James Franco fumbling through one of the most infamous scenes from Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. And it’s hilarious.
It’s been dubbed the Citizen Kane of bad movies. And now we finally get to see what really happened behind the scenes when the amazing(ly terrible) movie The Room was made in The Disaster Artist.
A new teaser for James Franco’s The Disaster Artist just came out, and it looks incredible. Sure, it’s not very long, but it’s everything.
The teaser shows Franco’s Tommy Wiseau attempting to deliver one of the movie’s most infamous lines. Johnny storms onto the roof and throws his water bottle down saying, “I did not hit her. It’s not true. It’s bulls–t. I did not hit her. I did not. Oh, hi Mark!” in his now famous accent. And he just can’t get it right. They go take after take with Wiseau forgetting the line, changing the line, or not being able to hear “action,” until he finally gets it right.
What makes this funnier? Apparently, that’s exactly how it went down. It’s a short scene, and yet Wiseau just couldn’t seem to get it right. According to Greg Sestero’s book of the same name, which the movie is based on, that one 7-second long scene took three hours and 32 takes to make.
“Tommy couldn’t remember his lines,” he wrote, according to Slate. “He couldn’t hit his mark. He couldn’t say ‘Mark.’ He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t find his eyeline. He would emerge from the outhouse mumbling, lost, and disoriented. He looked directly into the camera. He swore.”
The Room came out in 2003 to absolutely terrible reviews. It chronicled the love triangle between Wiseau’s Johnny, his fiancé Lisa (played by Juliette Danielle), and his best friend Mark (played by Sestero).
Soon, though, The Room took on a life of its own and developed a cult following. It’s been airing midnight screenings similar to The Rocky Horror Picture Show complete with its own rituals like throwing plastic spoons at the inexplicable framed picture of a spoon in the living room, yelling out lines, throwing footballs, and more.
I saw The Room a few times – including once with Sestero – and it was probably the most fun I’ve had at a movie.
Sestero went on to write The Disaster Artist, which was about his life and making The Room. Now Franco is directing and starring in the movie based on the book about the movie (which may be the most James Franco thing ever). His brother Dave plays Sestero, and Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Melanie Griffith, and Sharon Stone are also all in the movie, which received a standing ovation at South by Southwest.
And it’s easy to see why. Franco’s uncanny as Wiseau. He’s got the look down, and he reportedly stayed in character the whole time. Wiseau is an interesting, eccentric guy, to say the least. There were so many questions about Wiseau and The Room from how he financed it to the billboard Wiseau had put up.
It’ll be interesting to see a behind-the-scenes look at the “greatest bad movie ever made.” And with an amazing cast, the movie already getting rave reviews, and a hilarious teaser, The Disaster Artist looks like it’s going to be absolutely incredible.
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The Disaster Artist opens in limited release on Dec. 1 and a wide release on Dec. 8. I can’t wait.