Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 30 November 2017
How James Franco made a good

movie about the worst film ever

By LINDSEY BAHR (“(500) Days of Summer”). 8 years. The phenomenon,
AP Film Writer “This one is a little different he said, “Just continues to
LOS ANGELES (AP) — There but it’s no less real and no amaze and defy logic.”
are bad movies, and then less complicated than the “My whole goal was to
there is “The Room,” a others we’ve written.” make something great out
spectacularly bizarre inde- Franco also wanted to of something that was con-
pendent drama from 2003 make it a classic LA film sidered terrible,” Sestero
starring, written, financed with all the trimmings — said.
and directed by Tommy the bad diners in the Val- And so far, it’s working. “The
Wiseau, a unique-looking ley, the creepy agents, the Disaster Artist” has been
In this Nov. 15, 2017 photo, James Franco, left, and Dave Franco and accented man of am- naiveté, the auditions that getting positive reviews (it’s
pose for a portrait in New York to promote their film, “The Disaster biguous age and origin. go nowhere — the things currently clocking in at 96
Artist.” Associated Press “The Room” tells the story he remembers from be- percent on Rotten Toma-
of a San Francisco banker, ing a struggling actor in LA toes) and awards buzz.
Johnny (Wiseau), whose fi- around the same time Ses- It’s also James Franco’s
ancé, Lisa, and best friend, tero moved here with Wi- most mainstream effort yet
Mark, have an affair. And it seau in 1998. as a director.
is bafflingly awful — scenes He cast his younger broth- “I felt like the subject mat-
are out of focus, plotlines er, actor Dave Franco, as ter had the potential to be
are left dangling, soft- Sestero. It’s the first time bigger than this indie, art
core sex scenes leave you they’ve acted together in house thing,” Franco said.
cringing and the dialogue a significant way. The full-force marketing
sounds downright alien. “I’ve tried to get him into a campaign, led by hip indie
Film critic Scott Foundas lot of movies. Some of them distributor A24 (the shop
wrote at the time that the, he just didn’t vibe with. And behind last year’s best pic-
“Pic may be something of a there was a point in his ca- ture winner “Moonlight”),
first: A movie that prompts reer where he wanted to has leaned in to the pecu-
most of its viewers to ask for get out from, I guess, my liarities of Wiseau’s guer-
their money back — be- shadow, or just create his rilla marketing campaign,
fore even 30 minutes have own identity apart from creating a billboard in the
passed.” me,” said James Franco. “I heart of Hollywood almost
And yet, “The Room,” just thought: This is the one. exactly like the one Wiseau
which a film professor This is the one we should do commissioned in 2003, right
called “the ‘Citizen Kane’ together ... we have the down to the RSVP phone
of bad movies,” took on a perfect dynamic for this.” number. Franco himself
life of its own. It became James Franco is unrecog- apparently answers some-
a cult favorite of the mid- nizable, behind the pros- times.
night movie set, who treat thetics (which took 2 and a As for whether or not one
it as a “Rocky Horror Picture half hours to apply and 45 needs to see “The Room”
Show”-like event (there is minutes to remove), Gene first, Weber likes to quote
shouting, spoon-throwing Simmons hair, eccentric Paul Scheer, the comedian
and walk-outs), a popular costumes and vaguely behind the “How Did This
book about the making of Eastern European-sound- Get Made” podcast who
the film co-written by Greg ing accent required to play also plays the cinematog-
Sestero, who played Mark, the enigmatic Wiseau. rapher in the film.
and now a feature film While Sestero is less of a “He says, ‘If you’ve seen
about the whole ordeal, “character” than Wiseau, ‘The Room,’ ‘The Disaster
“The Disaster Artist,” direct- Dave Franco had his own Artist’ is a sequel. If you
ed by and starring James hurdles. haven’t seen ‘The Room,’
Franco as Wiseau. It hits “He’s making a lot of bad ‘The Disaster Artist’ is a pre-
theaters in limited release decisions throughout the quel,” said Weber.
Friday and expands wide film and I had to try to jus- While the cult of “The
Dec. 8. tify each of those so the Room” is in some ways in-
But as easy of a target as audience would under- explicable, its enduring ap-
“The Room” might be, stand why this guy contin- peal undeniable. “In the his-
“The Disaster Artist” is not a ued on this journey with this tory of Hollywood there are
spoof or a parody — it is a mad man,” Dave Franco thousands upon thousands
sincerely told (and inciden- said. “But he was a young of bad movies that we will
tally very fun and funny) actor who was not getting never watch again. ‘The
story about two outsiders, support from anyone else Room’ is something that
Sestero and Wiseau, who in his life and then he met people have been watch-
move to Los Angeles with this guy who encouraged ing religiously for 14 years. I
dreams of stardom and no him and told him he could don’t think that’s because
idea how to realize them. make it.” Tommy made bizarre deci-
It is “Boogie Nights,” not Sestero, who was only 19 sions at every turn. I really
“Bowfinger.” when he met Wiseau in a believe it’s because when
“For us, it was a relation- San Francisco acting class, Tommy made it, he put his
ship story,” said Michael H. said he feels like he has heart and soul into it. He
Weber, who co-wrote the been talking about “The was trying to make a great
script with Scott Neustadter Room” non-stop for almost movie,” Franco said.q