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Development

Tommy Wiseau originally wrote The Room as a play in 2001 after seeing the film The Talented Mr. Ripley. He then adapted the play into a 540-page book, which he was unable to get published. Frustrated, Wiseau instead decided to adapt the play into a film, producing it himself in order to maintain creative control. Wiseau has been secretive about how he obtained funding for the project, but he told Entertainment Weekly that he made some of the money by importing leather jackets from Korea. Acco...

Casting

Wiseau selected actors from thousands of head shots, although most of the cast had never been in a feature film prior to The Room. Sestero had limited film experience and agreed to work as part of the production crew only as a favor to Wiseau, with whom he had been friends for some time before production began. Sestero then agreed to play the Mark character after Wiseau fired the original actor on the first day of filming. Sestero was uncomfortable filming his sex scenes and was allowed to ke...

Writing

The original script was significantly longer than the one used and featured a series of lengthy monologues; it was edited on-set by the cast and script supervisor Sandy Schklair, who found much of the dialogue incomprehensible. An anonymous cast member told Entertainment Weekly that the script contained "stuff that was just unsayable. I know it's hard to imagine there was stuff that was worse. But there was." Sestero mentions that Wiseau was adamant characters say their lines as written, but...

Interpretations, themes, and influences

The Room is considered to be semi-autobiographical as it draws on specific incidents from Wiseau's own life, such as the details of how Johnny came to San Francisco and met Lisa, and the nature of Johnny and Mark's friendship. According to Sestero, the character of Lisa is based on a former lover of Wiseau's to whom he intended to propose marriage with a US$1,500 diamond engagement ring, but because she "betray[ed] him multiple times", their relationship ended in a break-up. Defining the scri...

Inconsistencies and narrative flaws

The script is characterized by numerous inexplicable mood and personality shifts in characters. In analyzing the film's abrupt tone shifts, Sestero highlighted two scenes in particular. In the first scene, Johnny enters the rooftop in the middle of a tirade about being wrongfully accused of domestic abuse, only to become abruptly cheerful upon seeing Mark; a few moments later, he laughs inappropriately upon learning that a friend of Mark's had been severely beaten. On set, Sestero and script...

Promotion

According to Sestero, Wiseau submitted the film to Paramount Pictures, hoping to get them as the distributor. Usually, it takes about two weeks to get a reply. The Room however was rejected within 24 hours. Because of this, the film was promoted almost exclusively through a single billboard in Hollywood, located on Highland Avenue just north of Fountain Avenue, featuring an image Wiseau refers to as "Evil Man": an extreme close-up of his own face with one eye in mid-blink. Although more conve...

Critical reception

The Room premiered on June 27, 2003, at the Laemmle Fairfax and Fallbrook theaters in Los Angeles. Wiseau additionally arranged a screening for the cast and the press at one of the venues, renting a searchlight to sit in front of the theater, and arriving in a limousine. Ticket buyers were given a free copy of the film's soundtrack on CD. Actress Robyn Paris described the audience laughing at the film, and Variety reporter Scott Foundas, who was also in attendance, would later write that the...

Midnight circuit

The Room played in the Laemmle Fairfax and Fallbrook for the next two weeks, grossing a total of US$1,900 (equivalent to $2,799 in 2021) before it was pulled from circulation. Toward the end of its run, the Laemmle Fallbrook theatre displayed two signs on the inside of the ticket window in relation to the film: one that read "NO REFUNDS" and another citing a blurb from an early review: "This film is like getting stabbed in the head." During one showing in the second week of its run, one of th...

In June 2011, it was announced that Greg Sestero had signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to write a book based on his experiences making the film. The book, titled The Disaster Artist, was published in October 2013. The book was made into an audiobook with Sestero's reading in May 2014and, in November 2014, won for Best Non-Fiction at the National ...

Books

Besides The Disaster Artist, a second memoir, Yes, I Directed The Room: The Truth About Directing the "Citizen Kane of Bad Movies", written by Schklair, was published on December 4, 2017, in which he again asserts his desire to receive credit for directing the film.

Films

A Canadian documentary about the film, titled Room Full of Spoons and directed by Rick Harper, was initially given a brief theatrical release in April 2016. However, the film was pulled from theaters and plans for a wide release in conjunction with the release of The Disaster Artist were hampered when it became the subject of legal proceedings by Wiseau, who claimed copyright infringement and defamation. Ultimately, Wiseau's lawsuit was dismissed in 2020 by Ontario Superior Court of Justice j...

Video game

In September 2010, Newgrounds owner Tom Fulp released a Flash game tribute, in the form of a 16-bit styled adventure game played entirely from Johnny's point of view. The game's artwork was provided by staff member Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandelin, with music transcribedby animator Chris O'Neill from the Mladen Milicevic score and soundtrack.

The comedy show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! on Adult Swim featured Wiseau prominently in the fourth season March 9, 2009 episode titled Tommy. Recruited as a "guest director", Wiseau is interviewed in mockumentary style, along with the show's leading actors, during the production of a fake film titled The Pig Man. Two scenes from The Room...