15 Years Ago Tommy Wiseau Bought a Billboard in Los Angeles to Promote ‘The Room.’ Now ‘The Disaster Artist’ Is Using It
The first time I heard about The Room was on a billboard.
It was the mid-2000s, a few months before the film became a cult in at midnight in Los Angeles. I was driving in Hollywood with a colleague. We passed this bizarre looking billboard and it caught my eye. (Here’s what it looked like:)
My co-worker saw that it caught my eye and asked “Do you know about The Room?” And then he filled me in on the whole story; this strange dude named Tommy Wiseau spent millions on this terrible movie, and then untold tens of thousands more on this billboard, advertising it. Shortly thereafter, the film started getting written about online, as actors and comedians began going to see The Room and hyping it’s awesome awfulness. The rest was history. (Oh hai history.)
15 years later, James Franco has made an extremely charming biopic about Tommy and The Room called The Disaster Artist. (Read my review of the film from TIFF here.) And as part of the film’s marketing campaign, Franco and his studio, A24 have bought the same billboard location in Los Angeles, and recreated it, only this time for The Disaster Artist. Check it out (H/T Los Angeles Times’ Jen Yamato):
The phone number works, too. Give it a call and see what it says. I heard an outgoing voice message from “Tommy” (Franco). But Seth Rogen tweeted...
...so who knows? If you call at the right time, Franco may answer. I say give it a shot.
The Disaster Artist opens in theaters on December 1.
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