The Room, a 2003 marvel of earnest but inept filmmaking, often appears when people list the worst film ever made. Now it’s being remade, for charity.

Whether The Room is or is not the worst movie ever made is debatable (though surely there are dozens of films that are worse), but we as a society have classified the movie as “not good,” even as it reliably fills up theaters when it’s on screen for midnight movie showings. But that’s the thing: a movie that is “not good” is also beloved because it’s not good.

And that’s why it’s the perfect fodder for riffing (those midnight movie showings involve a lot of good-natured ribbing from the audience) and now, a film remake for charity.

Acting for a Cause, an all-volunteer organization of performers that does table reads for charitable causes, is making their first feature film, called The Room Returns. It follows the same story as its inspiration: a woman (Lisa) betrays her naive fiancée (Johnny) with his best friend (Mark), and he has a meltdown about it. There’s some other stuff in there too: in the titular Room, we see a parade of friends go in and out, Lisa’s mother declares she has cancer, and there are parties, football, drug dealers looking for their money, nice doggies and terrible sex. In short, The Room has it all.

Bob Odenkirk will play the title character, Johnny, who was portrayed enigmatically by the original’s writer/director/leading man, Tommy Wiseau, himself an enigma. Greg Sestero, who played Mark in the original, is also in The Room Returns in another role. Brando Crawford is directing and also plays a part, along with Bella Heathcote, Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel, and Cameron Kasky.

Bob Odenkirk in The Room Returns. Image courtesy Acting for a Cause.

Sestero, ever a good sport about his appearance in The Room, wrote a novel on the making of the film called The Disaster Artist that was turned into a film in 2017.

The Room Returns will premiere Friday, June 26th at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. All proceeds from the event will go to cancer research organization amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, and Blue Collaborative, a non-profit production company that supports independent artists.

Crawford explained in a statement why the group chose this of all films for their first film project. “The Room has spent twenty years proving that audiences don’t fall in love with perfection… authenticity is what brings them back time and time again. The Room Returns is our attempt to honor that legacy while raising money for causes we care deeply about. The Room was famously shot across a year with a 6 million budget, and a mostly unknown cast. With The Room Returns, we are flipping the myth on its head: shot in a day, with no budget, and a cast and crew that puts butts in seats like Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk and Mike Flanagan. It’s an experiment that we made for art and impact.”

Tickets are available on their website, along with more information about Acting for a Cause and how to support them if you can’t attend. According to Brando Crawford’s YouTube page, the film had sold-out screenings in New York City and Chicago. No other screenings or DVD releases have been announced yet.

Leave comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *.