SHADY The Disaster Artist
Oscar-tipped tale is real-life story
“HOW did this rubbish get made?” is a question often asked by the modern cinema-goer.
If the film is British, the answer usually has something do with tax breaks, lottery funding or our weird thing for shonky Essex gangster thrillers.
But the story behind cult hit The Room is a lot more interesting.
The film cost Tommy Wiseau, it’s bizarrely accented writer, director and star, more than
$6million of his own money to make.
But it pulled in just $1,200 when released in two
LA cinemas in
2003.
As Wiseau is a dreadful actor, a hopeless writer and an even worse director, this box office bomb went off without comment.
What happened next caught everyone by surprise.
Over the years, a rabid fanbase developed. Branded “The Citizen Kane of bad movies” it starting showing at packed-out midnight screenings where audiences chanted Wiseau’s awful dialogue and winced in unison at his infamous sex scene.
Against the odds, Wiseau made his money back and realised his dream of becoming famous.
The stranger-than-fiction tale of its making was turned into a tell-all book co-written by Greg Sestero, Wiseau’s hammy leading man.
Now the story is about to get even stranger. James Franco has directed and starred in a film about the book about the film. And it’s really good.
If you’ve seen The Room, his is an uncanny impression of the loose-limbed oddball.
Tommy didn’t fool anyone when he claimed to be from New Orleans and in his early twenties, but 39-year-old Franco looks the part and nails his weird phrasing and Eastern European accent.
The story is mostly told from the viewpoint of 19-year-old Sestero (Dave Franco, inset) who meets Tommy at a San Francisco acting class. The pair bond after nervous Greg seeks the mysterious stranger’s advice about losing his inhibitions, a feat Tommy clearly achieved a good few decades ago.
Taking him under his wing, he brings him to a Los Angeles apartment that he rarely uses (the source of his wealth is yet another mystery).
While handsome Greg soon finds an agent (Sharon Stone) and a girlfriend (Alison Brie), Tommy isn’t quite so warmly received.
So he decides to call the shots himself. He doesn’t know one end of a camera from the other but his bottomless bank account will get him the cast, crew and studio space he needs to make his own Oscar-winner. The shooting of The Room is a total nightmare. Tommy wastes huge amounts of money building sets that look just like actual locations nearby. His plot is full of holes, he can’t remember his lines and keeps erupting into bizarre rants at co-stars.
“At least nobody will ever see it,” says his script supervisor (Seth Rogen) who soon starts plotting to scrub the film from his CV. He doesn’t know the half of it.
You don’t need to be a
Room fan to enjoy
James
Franco’s performance. It’s a goofy and often hilarious turn, but an affectionate one too. There is heart here as well as humour.
Ladbrokes are offering odds for him to win an Academy Award for this. Seeing Tommy at the Oscars would be the perfect ending to this bizarre true-life tale.