Radar: ‘The Room’ screening and Tommy Wiseau Q&A at FACT

The best news we’ve read all week: director/writer/producer Tommy Wiseau is set to visit FACT for a special screening of his cult movie ‘The Room’ next month.

If you’re not familiar with ‘The Room’, it’s got a fascinating, and rather hilarious history. Intended to be a romantic drama (though retrospectively called a ‘black comedy’ by its director), it was written originally as a play by Wiseau, who decided to fund and produce a film version himself. Financing came, apparently, from $6million Wiseau made importing leather jackets from Korea. Really. The first-time-director paid for and hired an entire studio and cameras himself, and hired 400 people for the film (replacing many people during the film’s creation on a whim, including the hiring a whole new technical crew. Twice). After its small-scale release in Los Angeles, Wiseau went on to hire a Hollywood billboard, promoting the film for four solid years.

Since then, its become a word-of-mouth cult classic: screenings of ‘The Room’ regularly sell out across the globe, packed with obsessives shouting out lines and quotes as the movie rolls. It’s the weirdest, funniest interactive cinema experience ever.

The movie itself is a superbly shoddy piece of filmmaking - characters are either stunningly one dimensional or never properly introduced at all, lines make no sense, the acting is wooden, continuity is all over the place, and - yes -it’s utterly brilliant because of it.

The charismatic Wiseau visits FACT next month, alongside actor Greg Sestero, for two screenings of their mini masterpiece. It’s a ‘don’t miss’, as far as we’re concerned.

The Room featuring Tommy Wiseau & Greg Sestero
FACT, Wood Street, Liverpool
13th February, 6.30pm / 9pm
Book tickets