James Franco Recreates the Best Bad Movie Ever in the First ‘Disaster Artist’ Trailer

Back in 2003, Tommy Wiseau wrote, produced, directed, and starred in The Room – a film now widely regarded as the Citizen Kane of bad movies. So intoxicatingly awful is every aspect of The Room  from its astonishingly non-sensical plot to its hysterically awkward dialogue to its cringe-worthy sex scenes that it’s amassed a Rocky Horror Picture Show-like following. To this day, fans across North America still gather monthly for midnight showings of this disaster-piece, just to yell along with its terrible script and throw plastic cutlery at the screen.

But just as intriguing as this comically shitty movie is its bizarre behind-the-scenes story. It’s still a mystery who exactly Wiseau is, where he came from (his accent is indistinguishable), or how he financed The Room (it reportedly had a $6 million budget). Even today, people are unsure whether Wiseau was tragically unaware of how poor his movie was, or in on the joke the entire time.

Apparently, James Franco is just as fascinated with The Room as we are.  So much so that’s he’s made his own movie about the making of this film, based on the book The Disaster Artist, written by actor Greg Sestero (who played Mark in The Room). After it debuted at SXSW earlier this year to rave reviews (and even some Oscar buzz), the film’s first teaser trailer is finally here. In it, Franco’s Wiseau fumbles repeatedly over one of the film’s many infamous lines “I did not hit her!” while his production team (which includes Seth Rogen) gets increasingly frustrated. Franco’s resemblance to Wiseau is remarkable, though the jury’s still out on whether he managed to nail the man’s accent. We can’t blame him what the hell is that accent, anyway?

Here’s the original scene, for comparison’s sake.

Anyway, how’s your sex life?