The Room Press Summary

The Room Tenth Anniversary Toronto, May 2013 GAT PR Press Summary

The Worst Movie Ever Made? http://globalnews.ca/video/587302/the-­‐worst-­‐movie-­‐ever-­‐made

Fri, May 24: Filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and actor Greg Sestero are on The Morning Show to reflect on their cult classic The Room, widely referred to as the worst movie ever.

The Room http://www.mtv.ca/movienight/clips/955890/the-­‐room

10 filmmaking lessons we learned from The Room Garnet Fraser

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/05/23/10_filmmaking_lessons_we_learned_from_the_room.html

The culture surrounding the now-­‐famed film The Room is one of questions, not answers. Devotees such as myself have for a decade now been exchanging our many queries about a movie widely celebrated as one of the worst ever made: where did writer/director Tommy Wiseau get all the funding? Was the character of Denny intended to be mentally challenged? What country, or indeed planet, is Wiseau from? But the answers have so far been unsatisfactory.

Co-­‐star Greg Sestero’s upcoming book promises, at last, some revelations for us scholars, and both he and Wiseau can put some niggling questions to rest when they come to Toronto’s Royal Cinema Friday through Sunday for the 10th anniversary screenings of The Room.

However, the movie already has rich educational value for another audience: rookie filmmakers. They don’t need information, they need inspiration. Here are 10 things about filmmaking The Room can teach them:

1. Go ahead and cast yourself in the lead: No one cares about your story like you do, and placing yourself front and centre is the responsible thing even if, like Wiseau, your accent and enunciation problems suggest a Transylvanian on a bottle of Nyquil.

2. Don’t sweat the rest of casting either: Talented, charismatic newcomers to the screen are actually easy to find, and Wiseau thoughtfully didn’t waste any in The Room, so there must still be some lying around.

3. Speak from the heart: What separates The Room from pretenders to the awfullest-­‐movie throne like Birdemic and Troll 2 is that the latter are mere commercial genre schlock — never meant to be any good anyhow. Wiseau thinks he has something to say (something misogynistic, actually) about men and women; when The Room isn’t hilarious, it’s appalling. You can’t lose!

4. There can never be too many establishing shots: Include several long tracking shots inching s-­‐l-­‐o-­‐w-­‐l-­‐y across the city skyline, until exasperated theatregoers shout, “We get it already, it’s San Francisco!” helpfully bringing any blind people in attendance up to speed.

5. Don’t worry about subtlety: If you want to establish that your protagonist Johnny is a great guy, just have several characters say so repeatedly throughout the film. Gotta get to feature length somehow. And don’t settle for one excruciating sex scene when two identical ones will suffice, which brings us to. . .

6. Let love scenes blur the line between erotica and horror: Wiseau and co. got there way before True Blood — not with any gore, just with unwanted nudity and the leading lady’s palpable discomfort.

7. Worry about story later: Let one character mention she has breast cancer without dealing with it again; let another one just vanish from the movie with no explanation. This is what sequels are for.

8. Seriously, just mention again how great Johnny is: Always works.

9. Try not to worry about posterity: The Room is up to 35 percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes as devotees championed its adorable incompetence; that might happen to you. On the other hand, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula made another lousy film,The Innocence of Muslims, and the U.S. government tried to pin Benghazi on him; that probably couldn’t happen twice.

10. Accept that it will probably be terrible, and do it anyway: Whether you seeThe Room or not, this film has done you a big favour — no one will ever call your creation the worst movie ever. That title’s taken.

The Room’s Tommy Wiseau live in Toronto Linda Barnard http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/05/14/the_rooms_tommy_wiseau_live_in_toronto.html

The Room, considered the Gone With the Wind of craptastic cinema, marks its 10th anniversary with a star-­‐powered tour that makes a Toronto stop May 24 to 26 at the Royal.

The indie drama’s star-­‐writer-­‐director-­‐producer Tommy Wiseau and actor Greg Sestero will introduce six showings of the indie cult hit, which has been playing monthly at the Royal since its Canadian debut four years ago.

Film fans have fallen for the unintentionally hilarious romantic potboiler, with its curious mix of overacting, melodrama, sex and fury.

Wiseau and Sestero, who are touring North America and Europe with the Love is Blind Blu 2013 Tour! will also host Q&A sessions with the audience. Considering The Room is filled with unresolved plot twists, head-­‐ scratching oddities and non-­‐sequiturs, fans will have plenty to ask about.

Talking to Tommy Wiseau Jesse Skinner http://www.toromagazine.com/features/talking-­‐to/61d859d4-­‐d483-­‐3cb4-­‐69fe-­‐f34fa2aca71d/Tommy-­‐Wiseau/

There are good movies, there are bad movies, and then there’s The Room (2003), which has transcended notions of quality to become the definitive cult classic of a generation.

The Room tells the story of Johnny, a banker caught in a love triangle with his fiancé (or as Johnny memorably puts it, “future wife”) Lisa (Juliette Danielle) and best friend Mark (Greg Sestero). As played by the movie’s clearly European writer / director Tommy Wiseau (though he has been cagey about his exact origins), Johnny is an altruistic, romantic, all-­‐American hero ultimately betrayed by those closest to him.

That’s how Wiseau sees it, anyway. But Room fans are more intrigued by the movie’s many bizarre

technical choices and non-­‐sequitur plot than its central drama. At times, Wiseau seemed to go out of his way to make the filmmaking process more obtuse — like constructing a rooftop set in a parking lot with a green screen skyline — but every obscure choice that went into production has been explained and defended by its star / writer / director / financier. Wiseau’s refusal to consider perceived flaws in his movie as anything other than a lack of insight on the part of its critics has only further endeared him to fans: here is a man who made exactly the kind of movie he wanted to make, apparently with his own money, that he has no apologies for.

Against all odds it became a hit, still playing to sold out crowds around the world. In Toronto this week, The Royal theatre will be hosting several screenings to mark the movie’s 10th anniversary, with Wiseau and Sestero in attendance as they often are. We spoke with Wiseau about the origins of the project, its surprising success, and his next movie Foreclosure.

This year is the tenth anniversary of The Room . After so many screenings and audience Q&A’s, what do you still get out of touring the movie?

I love the fans of The Room. I am very connected to the public. I love to interact with them ... some of the Q&A is OK, some is completely off the wall, you know, with the questions. But I always enjoy myself. After all these years, believe it or not, I never have a bad screening.

Have the Q&A’s changed over the years?

Over the years it has become slightly different. The Room has evolved itself by people asking more specific questions about character. There are still some personal questions. But, you know, I love when the questions challenge me — “Why does Chris-­‐R appear in only one scene?” I like the challenging questions, I do.

You wrote, directed, financed, produced and starred in The Room . Was that out of necessity — not finding people who could live up to your vision — or are you just that ambitious?

I don’t know if you know, but at the beginning The Room, you see, was supposed to be a play. From beginning I never approach big studio system, but I had good resources from growing up in the business world. I wanted to do the play but I have roller-­‐coaster ride, because in America I discover people don’t go to see the play on stage as often as they go to the cinema. I knew I had to make movies, no other way.

So I did the (filmmaking) research for the movie, like with the camera. I decided to use two cameras [The Room was famously filmed using HD and 35mm camera stock at the same time] and yes I was confused about the formats but everybody was. People say, “Tommy was confused!” but 10 years ago people were confused. But that’s another topic.

I wanted to put everything I learned into the movie. Everything I’d learned about life, relationships, acting and directing. So to answer your question it was ambition, slash a bit of an ego thing. But not in a bad way.

In which we draw an intriguing parallel Norman Wilner http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=192700

I have a bad habit of putting this column off until the last possible second. This week, of course, I had a pretty good excuse – I’ve been online with everyone else, watching Rob Ford’s mayoralty melt down in the most spectacular fashion.

It’s like we’re living in an alternate universe where Toronto is ruled by the Mad King whispered about on Game Of Thrones, and nobody’s willing to admit it. Black is white; up is down; drunk (or

worse) is sober as a judge, and so on. Every time I go into a screening, I half-­‐expect to emerge into Thunderdome.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to figure out if it’s the world that’s gone mad, or us. Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is back in town, celebrating its 10th anniversary with screenings tonight, Saturday and Sunday at the Royal.

The Room is the work of a madman – an inexplicable, unpackable drama about a few days in the life of Johnny a San Francisco ladies’ man whose glad-­‐handing ways mask a terror of abandonment. I think Johnny’s supposed to be a hopeless romantic, but Wiseau plays him as a dangerously unbalanced individual who intimidates everyone around him with the threat of humiliation or worse.

It’s like a nightmare version of that Twilight Zone episode about the omnipotent little boy who terrorizes his small town into saying every awful thing he does is wonderful. And that mindset extends beyond the world of The Room; Wiseau somehow forced his collaborators to shoot The Room simultaneously in both HD and 35mm, with two cameras locked together on a platform so neither shot is ever properly centred, creating a genuinely disorienting aesthetic that makes the whole thing feel like it’s just seconds from slipping into total chaos.

If you can watch The Room and think it makes sense – or if Wiseau seems like a genius auteur rather than a raving loon at the Q&As scheduled to follow every screening – then maybe the world really has gone crazy. Or maybe it’s just us, and Rob Ford’s been the sanest man in Toronto all along.

But I kinda doubt it. We’re talking about The Room, after all.

Wylie Writes The Reviews of Addison Wylie

Oh Hi Wylie Writes: A Two-­‐ On-­‐ One With The Room’s Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero Addison Wylie http://wyliewrites.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/oh-­‐hi-­‐wylie-­‐writes-­‐a-­‐two-­‐on-­‐one-­‐with-­‐the-­‐rooms-­‐tommy-­‐ wiseau-­‐and-­‐greg-­‐sestero/

Full audio interview is available here:

Director/screenwriter/producer/star Tommy Wiseau is very proud of his movie The Room, a drama formed around a love triangle that has taken on an impressive cult status.

The film premiered in mid-­‐2003 and left an impact on moviegoing communities. The film is baffling and has a confusing aura to it all…but it keeps drawing people in. People who are willing to bring their unbeknownst friends because “they just have to see it”.

Because of these repeat viewings and this bizarre excitement it’s aroused, The Room has been popular during midnight screenings where patrons are encouraged to interact with the film.

Some of these interactions include throwing spoons at the screen, reciting memorable lines, and playing catch with a football between you and your moviegoing buddy. Don’t worry, it’ll all make sense.

Wiseau’s passion project marks its 10th anniversary this year – which is quite a feat. For the anniversary, Wiseau and actor Greg Sestero (who plays the role of Mark) came to Toronto to celebrate the long-­‐running event.

I was very fortunate to sit down with both men and talk shop about The Room as well as other topics like Sestero’s upcoming book The Disaster Artist based on his experiences making the film, stage acting vs. acting in a film, and cinematic audience participation and whether we’ve gone too far or not.

Wiseau was vocal about how much he appreciates Toronto’s avid Room support and added that he loves Canada. When asked about the movie goers that call the film “so bad, it’s good” and “the worst movie ever made”, Wiseau explained that he doesn’t necessarily listen to that feedback. It’s a film where people can take whatever they want from it and those who have embraced it have had a blast watching Wiseau’s story unfold. “In the eighties, ‘bad’ really meant ‘good’. Like, if you’re ‘bad’, you’re ‘really good’,” Wiseau explained. I’m glad he’s keeping a bright attitude and that he’s sticking to his guns.

Listen to the interview below. The audio starts with Greg’s answer to my question, “Did you ever expect the film to pick up this much steam? Could you have predicted 10 years ago you’d be here?”:

Tommy Wiseau Presents ‘The Room’ in Toronto Cinemablographer http://www.cinemablographer.com/2013/05/the-­‐room-­‐tommy-­‐wiseau-­‐toronto-­‐royal.html

Would you believe that I have never seen The Room? Tommy Wiseau’s cult favourite, deemed “the Citizen Kane of bad movies,” has its 10th anniversary this year. The Room is such a novelty among film buffs that it’s played monthly in theatres like Toronto’s The Royal and Ottawa’s Mayfair Theatre for the past few years. I’ve held out for reasons unknown, but now The Room has made an offer I can’t refuse. (Perhaps it’s The Godfather of bad movies?) Writer, director, executive producer, star Tommy Wiseau is hitting the road with actor Greg Sestero for the Love is Blind Blu 2013 Tour and they’re coming to The Royal this weekend to celebrate The Room’s tenth birthday in person.

The unintentional hilarity of The Room has enjoyed something that Citizen Kane, The Godfather, or even Casablanca ever achieved: a mass following, a ritual, or even, maybe, a subculture. (Even the critics abandoned Citizen Kane last year.) The Room leaves audiences in hysterics with its nonsensical plot and ridiculous sex scenes, but audiences have taken the cheese of The Room and put it on toast. Like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Room is best enjoyed at

midnight with audience participation. Yelling at the screen, throwing objects, and backtalk are all encouraged—it’s like you’re at Cannes!

To help join in the fun when Tommy and company screen The Room this weekend, here are some of the cues from the A.V. Club’s list of audience prompts, “AViewer’s Guide to The Room”:

“Spoon!”

Nearly all of the artwork in the film features spoons. Whenever one of the works appears on screen, you yell “Spoon!” and hurl plastic picnic spoons at the screen. Fourth row from the screen essentially makes the whole project self-­‐ replenishing, because most spoons land there. You literally throw a handful and another handful falls in your lap. It’s like being part of a plastic-­‐cutlery salmon migration. As the film trudges on, people start throwing spoons out of boredom, even if the scene doesn’t require it.

"Shoot her!”

Yelled during Lisa’s protracted neck-­‐twitch scene. (It’s a reference to the opening of Jurassic Park.) Also appropriate: “Quaid, get to the reactor!”

(My cousin used to yell this at the beach… now I know why…)

"Cancer!”

Lisa’s mother alludes to having it once and then never mentions it again. Also, when she touches Lisa on the nose, some people shout “I put my evil inside you!”

“FOCUS! UNFOCUS!!”

The film is constantly going in and out of focus. (“Damn you Todd Barron!” He’s the director of photography, and that’s what you shout when his credit pops up) Whenever the film goes out of focus, people shout “Focus!” Of course, when it does come back into focus during a sex scene, it is necessary to shout “Oh God. Unfocus!”

“Go! Go! Go! Go!” Used to cheer on tracking shots of the bridge. Celebrate when it makes it all the way across the bridge. Express your disappointment when it doesn’t. ***This one’s for The Mayfair! (apparently a favourite of their loyal Roomies)

"Who the fuck are you?"

At one point, two characters will show up in Tommy’s apartment. They will be fucking. No one will know who they are, thus it is appropriate to shout “Who the fuck are you?” whenever they appear onscreen.It is also appropriate to shout this when the actor playing Peter (the psychologist) disappears (maybe he was looking at the camera too much?), only to be replaced by another actor who looks nothing like him. Yes, just “Who the fuck are you?”

Being open about one’s revulsion during any of the sex scenes. Includes graphically describing the act and hurling the cruelest jokes about the actors’ bodies/movements that one can conceive. Breaking into the Free Willy theme is sometimes done. Notice how it looks like Tommy is fucking her belly button? Yeah, you’re doing it wrong, Wiseau.

Tommy Wiseau celebrates 10 years of ‘The Room’ http://torontoyouthshorts.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/tommy-­‐wiseau-­‐celebrates-­‐10-­‐years-­‐of-­‐the-­‐room/

Have you experienced ‘The Room’ yet? Tommy Wiseau’s roaring success – or should that be suckscess – of a movie is celebrating 10 years of inspiring avid film lovers to replace cast members half way through their incredibly expensive vanity projects and hurl plastic spoons (and heavy amounts of abuse) at screens. To celebrate, the Royal is hosting director Tommy Wiseau and fan favourite Greg ‘Mark’ Sestero for 6 screenings of The Room this weekend!

A monthly fixture at The Royal for the last 4 years, The Room is a movie going experience like no other. If you haven’t seen it yet (and why not?!) I’d rather not spoil it, but if you prefer your experience silent, self-­‐reflective and civilised, this isn’t one for you. For everyone else, the audience is about as hilarious as the images on screen, and I truly feel for the clean up crews. Wiseau sunk $6 Million of his own cash into what is largely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, by critics and his own cast and crew alike, but has rather cleverly monopolised on the bad movie die-­‐hards and good naturedly does the Q&A rounds at screenings across the world. While the film isn’t the deep and thought provoking dramatic tragedy it was so obviously intended to be (despite Wiseau’s adamant claims that it was always supposed to be a comedy), it certainly doesn’t disappoint on an entertainment level, and it will be extremely fun to gain a little more insight onto how and why this film ever saw the light of day, and how it feels to be make a success of a film more routinely savaged than any other.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. For more info and screening times visit the Royal’s event pag

The Room an Entertaining Experience at the Royal Shael Stolberg http://filmbutton.com/mainpage/?p=9120

Watching Tommy Wiseau’s The Room for the first time with an audience is like a virgin entering a whorehouse on New Year’s Eve.

First off, the place is packed with folks wearing director/writer/producer/star Tommy Wiseau’s t-­‐shirts, featuring his stringy black hair and grizzled face. The shirt and poster look like a horror film. So The Room is a horror flick, right? Not horror, but horrific.

Secondly, several women in the audience are wearing identical fire-­‐engine red, come-­‐fuck-­‐me dresses and blonde wigs. Okay…

The kicker comes the second the film unspools in the projector. The audience talks non-­‐stop at the screen, parroting lines before characters speak them, castigating the movie’s endless stream of continuity gaffes, crappy green screen shots, bizarre set decorations and God-­‐awful acting that would make Ed Wood barf in his grave, shrieking with laughter. That means, laughing at the movie and not because it is a comedy.

And the spoons… For some inexplicable reason, there’s a framed photo of a spoon prominently resting on a table in the living room which is the setting for most of the film. Whenever that photo appears, the crowd roars, “Spoon!” and hurls a shower of plastic spoons into the air which litter the aisles.

So, what is The Room about? It’s a 2003 melodrama about a love triangle gone awry in San Francisco. What it really is happens to be the sloppiest piece of filmmaking that was ever shat upon a movie screen.

We’re not talking boom mikes in shots (which The Room has), but:

-­‐ characters who appear in the story for no reason then vanish also for no reason – a scene in which one character threatens to toss another off a rooftop then inexplicably has a change of heart – the leading lady whose throat bulges like a Louisana swamp frog when she speaks in one scene – a supporting character who is either a naïve teenager or mentally handicapped adult – sloppy overdubbing—and still the lines make no sense – a love scene that is repeated shot-­‐for-­‐shot about 10 minutes after it is first screened

The crowning glory has to be the wretched acting. I can’t place Wiseau’s accent, but whenever he opened his mouth the audience screamed in laughter. And this is a drama, not a comedy.

In an age of inflated ticket prices when audiences are watching more movies on giant flatscreen HDTVs at home,The Room deserves credit for bringing them back to the cinema to enjoy the audience experience just like the good old days of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Watching The Room at home would be dull.The Room has to be experienced with an audience to enjoy how profoundly awful it is…and how much fun it was to be part of! Definitely worth the money.

Allan is a Toronto filmmaker, co-­‐directing Leone Stars, a documentary about child victims of the Sierra Leonean civil war.

THE ROOM with TOMMY WISEAU Live in Person! at The Royal May 24, 25, 26 Tix available now! http://www.blogto.com/events/76730

It’s the 10th anniversary of THE ROOM and The Royal is celebrating with writer, director, executive producer, and star TOMMY WISEAU and actor GREG SESTERO -­‐ IN PERSON for the Love is Blind Blu 2013 Tour!

Friday May 24th at 9pm and 11:59pm Saturday May 25th at 9pm and 11:59pm Sunday May 26th at 7pm and 10pm

THE ROOM is in the house! The independent, cult hit film that has taken North America by storm made its official Canadian debut in Toronto at The Royal four years ago and has been playing monthly ever since.

THE ROOM is a melodramatic story of a love triangle that leaves its audience members in hysterics. Once you’ve seen THE ROOM, you’ll never walk out the same again.

Advance tickets here: https://ww2.ticketpro.ca/event.php?event_id=904&languageid=-­‐1&aff=tapa

Plagued with unresolved sub-­‐plots, exaggerated sex-­‐scenes, unexplained characters, and a bizarre script, THE ROOM's unintentional humour has transformed this would-­‐be-­‐flop into a bona fide cult hit. Since its debut in 2003, THE ROOM has garnered a mass following across the country that includes celebrity actors and comedians like David Cross, Paul Rudd, Jason Siegel, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and Katherine Bell, just to name a few. Although originally written as a drama, this unintentional comedy leaves audiences rolling in the aisles.

See the movie with Tommy and Greg in person for all six screenings with an intro and Q&A.

Tickets are $15.00 in advance and $20 at the box office day of.

608 COLLEGE STREET TORONTO ONTARIO M6G1A1–THE ROOM WITH TOMMY WISEAU LIVE IN PERSON AT THE ROYAL MAY 24 25 26 TIX AVAILABLE NOW http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XlScFhGN3qoJ:www.italiaincrisi.it/eventi/608-­‐ college-­‐street-­‐toronto-­‐ontario-­‐m6g-­‐1a1-­‐the-­‐room-­‐with-­‐tommy-­‐wiseau-­‐live-­‐in-­‐person-­‐at-­‐the-­‐royal-­‐may-­‐24-­‐ 25-­‐26-­‐tix-­‐available-­‐now/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk

2013-­‐05-­‐24 – It’s the 10th anniversary of the room and The Royal is celebrating with writer director executive producer and star tommy wiseau and actor greg sestero in person for the Love is Blind Blu 2013 Tour

Friday May 24th at 9pm and 1159pm Saay May 25th at 9pm and 1159pm Sunday May 26th at 7pm and 10pm

the room is in the house The independent cult hit film that has taken North America by storm made its official Canadian debut in Toronto at The Royal four years ago and has been playing monthly ever since the room is a melodramatic story of a love triangle that leaves its audience members in hysterics Once youve seen the room youll never walk out the same again

With unresolved subplots exaggerated scenes unexplained characters and a bizarre script the room’s unintentional humour has transformed this wouldbeflop into a bona fide cult hit Since its debut in 2003 the room has garnered a mfollowing across the country that includes celebrity actors and comedians like David Cross Paul Rudd Jason Siegel Tim Heidecker Eric Wareheim and Katherine Bell just to name a few Although originally written as a drama this unintentional comedy leaves audiences rolling in the aisles

See the movie with Tommy and Greg in person for all six screenings with an intro and qa Tickets are 1500 in advance and 20 at the box office day of must be 19 or over

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