Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates | Tagged: room, tommy wiseau

Oh Hi, Mark! Greg Sestero Writes Book About Making The Room

Published Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:12:46 -0500

Last updated Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:14:16 -0500

Hannah Shaw Williams writes for Bleeding Cool:

If you haven't yet seen Tommy Wiseau's masterpiece The Room I strongly suggest that you run yourself a hot bubblebath, pour a glass of champagne, somehow hook up a DVD player and TV where you can see the screen and enjoy the happiest two hours of your life.*

Rarely does a film come along that fills its viewers with such joy, such renewed zest for life, such vaguely troubled bewilderment. This is a film that not only defied all cinematic convention but also threw the rulebook out of the window and created its own genre and style. I cannot even describe it to you; it must be seen to be believed.

Since surely everyone stopped reading after the first paragraph and went to go and watch The Room, I shall henceforth assume that we are all on the same page.

Actor Greg Sestero, who plays the protagonist Johnny's treacherous best friend Mark in the film, has just signed a book deal with Simon and Schuster for Locked Inside The Room, a book about his memories of making the film. Here's the plot synopsis from Publishers Weekly:

Locked Inside The Room will be the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Room, the cult film sensation hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "the Citizen Kane of bad movies." Illustrated with never-before-seen photos, the book will describe the movie's tumultuous production, reveal the film's myriad of mysteries, and provide a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of the film's enigmatic and egomaniacal creator, Tommy Wiseau. The authors are Greg Sestero, Wiseau's Room co-star who has known him for years, and Tom Bissell, acclaimed author whose Harper's Magazine piece on the phenomenon of The Room was published in 2010."

From that description it seems likely that Tom Bissell will actually write the bulk of the book based on interviews with or personal accounts from Greg, though the actor seems fairly eloquent in his statement about the book:

I'm looking forward to sharing the journey that led to The Room. Beyond the resulting, unplanned hilarity is a tale of heart, sadness and ultimate artistic heroism. It is a story just as surreal, baffling and entertaining as the film itself. As incomprehensible and bizarrely captivating as The Room is, its hilarious and brutal journey to fruition is even more fraught and revealing than expected. This book will provide the only intimate look into the film's eccentric and enigmatic creator, Tommy Wiseau, while exploring that which has made an otherwise otherwordly film, strangely, yet charmingly, universal.

Artistic heroism, eh? I'm not ashamed to say that I'm going to buy this book as soon as it comes out (the current press release states a tentative publication date of early 2013). I just wish I could read it now, the wait is tearing me apart.**