Oh, hi Bob.
Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk will star in a video re-creation of The Room, one of cinema’s strangest films – some say the worst, others know the naysayers just don’t get it.
Performed against a green screen that displays locations used in the original movie, The Room remake is the latest endeavor from Acting For a Cause, an all-volunteer organization that produces and stages Zoom-style table readings of classic plays and movies for charity. Produced, directed and hosted by the organization’s Brando Crawford, The Room will benefit amfAR.
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“This is real,” Odenkirk tweeted last night. “This is true. And let me tell you, I tried my best to SELL every line, as honestly as I could…and I had a BLAST.’
Typically, the Acting For A Cause productions are announced just days before they appear on the group’s website, with pre-show information dripped out on its Instagram page. Judging by photos posted on Instagram, The Room project is a step beyond the usual Zoom-readings, with the cast actually performing in front of the green screen.
Odenkirk all but confirmed his involvement earlier this week by retweeting a tweet from podcaster Justin Decloux that revealed some details of the project, specifically Odenkirk’s casting as Tommy Wiseau. Actor and activist Cameron Kasky has also tweeted behind-the-scenes images, and said on Reddit that Crawford and Pieces of Her actor Bella Heathcote will appear in the tribute-remake.
For the uninitiated, The Room is a 2003 indie film written, produced and directed by Wiseau, who plays (terribly or wonderfully, depending one’s taste for unintentional humor) a banker driven to his wits’ end when his fiancée Lisa (Juliette Danielle) and best friend Greg (Greg Sestero) develop feelings for one another. Of course, even a more detailed summary couldn’t do justice to the film or its bizarre digressions, plot holes, non sequiturs, unnecessary characters and over-the-top (to put it mildly) acting.
The film built up a groundswell of cult appreciation after its very limited theatrical release, so much so that subsequent screenings took on a Rocky Horror vibe as audience members shouted their favorite lines (“Oh, hi Mark,” being just one; the line is spoken, in a hilariously offhand and friendly way by Wiseau while his character is in the midst of one of his many angry meltdowns).
The making of the movie was the subject of the mainstream (i.e., bigger-budgeted) 2017 film The Disaster Artist, starring James Franco as Wiseau.
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