By Armando
New Line Cinema
James Franco’s latest directorial effort “The Disaster Artist”, is getting plenty of acclaim following its world premier Monday at the Toronto Film Festival. A24 has now released a full trailer (below) and its both hilarious and bizarre, showing a long-haired Franco with a strange accent, devouring ramen, awkwardly throwing football and shooting himself, all of which weird yet amusing; appropriate given the film’s eccentric subject.
The film chronicles the making of the 2003 independent romantic drama The Room, a critically lambasted film written, starred and directed by Tommy Wiseau. Often pilloried as “the Citizen Kane of bad movies,” The Room was pulled from theaters after just a couple of weeks and prompted refunds from audience.
In spite of that notoriety, or maybe because of it, the film’s love triangle tale managed to garner a cult following, and later inspired a video game and a live play/reading based on the original script.
One of the actors in The Room was Greg Sestero, who wrote a memoir of his experience during the troubled production of Wiseau’s vanity film. Titled The Disaster Artist, the book was published to critical acclaim in 2013 and received various literary awards.
That biographical memoir is the basis of James Franco’s eponymous film, which he developed with comedian/filmmaker Seth Rogen, with Franco playing Tommy Wiseau while his brother Dave plays Sestero. Writing partners Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Fault in Our Stars) penned the script.
“The Disaster Artist” marks the first time that the Franco brothers are working together in a film, and a good timing it is now that Dave made good on his own following appearances in Now You See Me, Neighbors, 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie, all of which received a sequel, with The LEGO Ninjago Movie out next weekend. The film also stars co-producer Rogen, as well as Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver and Zac Efron.
Not only is the film scoring well with critics (currently 96% on RT), many speculate James Franco’s efforts in front and behind the camera could be a player come awards season. The film’s work-in-progress version also received similar reception when it screened early this year at South by Southwest Festival in Austin.
The Disaster Artist is scheduled for theatrical release Dec. 1.
