Entertainment

James Franco Is Tommy Wiseau in 'The Disaster Artist' Teaser

See how 'The Room' was made.

by Eric Francisco

In the pantheon of bad movies, few have achieved the infamy of The Room. Now, the hilarious trailer for The Disaster Artist, about the making of The Room, is finally here, with James Franco in amazing Tommy Wiseau glory.

Released in 2003 and written, produced, directed, and starring Wiseau, The Room tried to be a dark, emotional melodrama about a love triangle but wound up becoming one of the biggest trainwrecks in indie movie history. Due to its notoriety, The Room has become a cult film, and now its behind-the-scenes story will be told in The Disaster Artist, based on a 2013 memoir from Greg Sestero, who played “Mark” in The Room.

Much like The Room itself, the trailer for The Disaster Artist is pretty unconventional. Instead of quick cuts of Franco’s Wiseau bumbling his way into making his passion project, it’s just one scene of Wiseau taking upwards of 67 takes to nail down one line — arguably the most famous one in the entire film.

But what’s surprising about The Disaster Artist is that Franco doesn’t seem to be imitating Wiseau’s awkward French-English accent. James Franco just sounds like James Franco, mostly. Given Franco’s usual commitment to his roles, it’s strange that Franco isn’t going into overdrive as Wiseau, who is by all accounts an actual living B-movie character.

The Disaster Artist will hit theaters on December 1.