Movies

‘The Disaster Artist’ Trailer: You’re Tearing Us Apart, James Franco

By  · Published on July 18th, 2017

A24 releases a first look at James Franco’s film about the making of Tommy Wiseau’s ‘The Room,’ one of the greatest cinematic disasters of all-time.

Following a work in progress screening at South by Southwest in March, the biggest surprise about James Franco’s The Disaster Artist wasn’t that people were saying that it was good. It’s that everyone exited that screening with talk of Franco’s film being a legitimate awards contender.

Based on what we’re seeing in this first trailer — which was released today by the folks at A24 ahead of the film’s December 1 release — I still don’t see it. For me, it’s still hard to see how this film isn’t just making fun of Wiseau. It will also have to answer the greatest question of all: can one really parody that which transcends parody? The Room is lightning in a bottle for cinematic disasters. How one truly goes about telling that story in a way that both humanizes Wiseau and pokes fun at him is beyond me. But perhaps it’s not beyond James Franco. Hard to say from the trailer.

The Disaster Artist is due in theaters December 1, 2017. Here’s the official pitch from the studio: “Based on Greg Sestero’s best-selling tell-all about the making of Tommy Wiseau’s cult–classic disaster piece THE ROOM (“The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made”), THE DISASTER ARTIST is a hilarious and welcome reminder that there is more than one way to become a legend– and no limit to what you can achieve when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing.”

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Neil Miller is the persistently-bearded Publisher of Film School Rejects, Nonfics, and One Perfect Shot. He's also the Executive Producer of the One Perfect Shot TV show (currently streaming on HBO Max) and the co-host of Trial By Content on The Ringer Podcast Network. He can be found on Twitter here: @rejects (He/Him)