By Kit Ramsey.

In 2013 a book named The Disaster Artist: My life inside The Room was released to the world, written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. It details the trials and tribulations of author Sestero as he tried to break-in to the overcrowded and labyrinthine LA acting world. What sets this all too familiar story aside is the fact that the book also chronicles the maddening and disastrous production of the legendary bad movie, The Room (2003) and perhaps the most tantalising story of all, an insight into Sestero’s relationship with The Room’s creator Tommy Wiseau.

The book received critical acclaim, as well as a nice collection of awards such as the Best Non-Fiction prize at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Critics latched onto the contagiously exciting drama of a young actor building his career while at the same time laughing hysterically at the bizarre and rocky road towards filming The Room, while curiously gaining an insiders perspective as to who exactly Tommy Wiseau is, and what he’s like off camera and out of the spotlight.

It comes as no surprise that in early 2014, Seth Rogen’s production company Point Grey Pictures optioned the rights to the film adaptation of The Disaster Artist, with James Franco taking lead as director, producer and main star, playing the coveted role of Tommy Wiseau. But production for the comedy has been oddly quiet, with only a few bits and pieces of information surfacing for the last 3 years of production.

At a Q&A and screening event attended by Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, actor Dave Franco (James’ younger brother) gave an impromptu announcement that he would be playing the role of Greg Sestero opposite his brother. The news was met with applause from the crowd and a personal commendation from Tommy Wiseau himself.

Over the next few months, more castings were announced: Seth Rogen would be playing Sandy Schklair, The Room’s script supervisor, Josh Hutcherson would play Philip Haldiman, the actor who plays Denny in The Room and Zac Efron, who would take the role of Dan Janjigian, former Olympian turned actor who plays Chris-R. Further castings include Hannibal Burress, Kate Upton, Brian Cranston, Nathan Fielder and Sharon Stone.

Throughout this entire process there’s been images released for the film, showing Franco in various states of makeup as Tommy Wiseau, with other supporting cast members usually being ignored or not shown, the exception being on the teaser poster released last year. It seems very clear that Franco intends on staying true to the ethos of the book, in that it’s more a character study on Wiseau and his relationship with Sestero. Franco cites the two Paul Thomas Anderson films Boogie Nights (1997) and The Master (2012) as being influential on the project.

Controversy with the film arose slightly when the title of the film was reportedly changed to The Masterpiece, fuelling speculation amongst fans that perhaps the purpose of the film wasn’t so much a re-telling of the story of The Disaster Artist, but rather a mean spirited joke, with The Room and Tommy Wiseau being the punchline. However, when the film was finally given a premier date of March 12th 2017 at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the title was reinstated to that of The Disaster Artist.

So with just under a month to go until the world premier, just how do we think Franco’s efforts are going to be received? His directorial career is somewhat spotty, with an extremely prolific output garnering critical acclaim, ridicule and sometimes being completely unnoticed and forgotten. Whatever happens, surely it will only add to the on-going saga that is The Room.

---

We hope you're enjoying BRWC. You should check us out on our social channels, subscribe to our newsletter, and tell your friends. BRWC is short for battleroyalewithcheese.

---

Trending on BRWC:

---

Cool Posts From Around the Web:

---

---