Everything You Need to Know About 'The Disaster Artist'

When one dives into the fascinating world of independent cinema, you're bound to come across some of the most intriguingly odd films and filmmakers out there. However, perhaps none more so than than the 2003 cult classic The Room and it's star, director, writer and producer Tommy Wiseau. Indeed, often labelled as the "Citizen Kane of bad movies" or "the best unintentional comedy ever made", the surreal absurdity of what was presumeably supposed to be a romantic drama has left film fans simultaneously preplexed and captivated over just what was going through Wiseau's mind when he put that thing together.

It Has a Great Source Material to Build Upon

Now, it would appear that one of these fans is none other than James Franco, as we're about to see him star in, direct and produce a film, which tells the story of The Room's creation in form of his upcoming project named The Disaster Artist (scheduled to be released somewhere later in 2017). And well, based on what we know so far, there are quite a few reasons to believe that this could turn out to be something rather special. So, let's take a look at a few more major ones.

From the way Wiseau directed and acted in it, to pretty much every single artistic decision he made, it's fair to say that when it comes to the story behind The Room's creation, the reality seems to be stranger than any fiction. Therefore, in order to not get lost while telling this story, The Disaster Artist clearly needed to have a strong base line to build upon. Luckily, this is exactly what the project has in form of the hugely popular book of the same name chronicling the creation of The Room (and everything around it) through the eyes of Greg Sestero — one of lead actors in The Room and Wiseau's friend.

So, you can expect the film to remain very true to the actual events and take full advantage of what exploring this odd phenomenon offers.

Franco Is the Perfect Guy for the Project

Not only is it wonderfully meta that Franco — who is not exactly the most conventional artist himself — is going direct, star in and produce a film about how Wiseau created and starred in one of the oddest pieces of cinema ever, but he seems to be just the right person to tackle a project like that.

You see, whether you look at his filmography or the fact that he has taken up many writing and filmmaking courses at various universities over the years (while even teaching a course on modifying poetry into short films at NYU), Franco simply comes across as a guy with a great passion and interest towards filmmaking and, indeed, exploration of artistic vision in general. Now, needless to say, that the story behind The Room provides an excellent ground for just that.

Also, Franco is a rather talented actor and, well, he better be, as the task at hand seems to be almost hilariously impossible to pull off — getting inside the head of the enigma that is Tommy Wiseau.

You see, while Wiseau's contradicitive and mysterious origins have become more clear over the years (apparently he was born around '50s in Poland and decided to become a filmmaker after being in a serious car crash and/or seeing The Talented Mr Ripley), he is still a walking mystery, as you're never quite sure whether he is ingeniously crazy, a crazy genius or something in between. However, judging by the early reviews, Franco might have have cracked this mystery, since he is getting praised for his performance.

Now, bottom line here is that Franco's involvement seems to indicate that the story will be done justice and we will be treated to a fun and introspective look at filmmaking through a strong central performance. Think something like Tim Burton's Ed Wood only even more odd.

It Has an All-Around Awesome Creative Team

It's not just Franco's involvement that makes this project so potentially appealing however. The subject matter has attracted an impressive team all around. For starters, it's written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber — the duo behind 500 days of summer. And, well, then there's the rest of the cast featuring the likes Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Josh Hutcherson, Zac Efron, Hannibal Buress, Sharon Stone and Melaine Griffit among others.

Furthemore, there are also going to be cameos from Bryan Cranston, Zach Braff, J. J. Abrams, Kristen Bell, Keegan-Michael Key, Adam Scott, Danny McBride and rather brilliantly by Tommy Wiseau himself. So, however unlikely this project might have looked at the beginning, many talented people clearly have a lot of faith in it.

Now, as previously touched upon, The Disaster Artist has gotten a hugely positive feedback during it's early screenings and currently holds a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes. So, even when you haven't seen The Room you should be in for a treat. Although, you probably should see it before. Just to believe it.