It’s been more than two decades since The Room made its auspicious debut, which marked the emergence of the most significant cult classic in American cinema since The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The Room’s writer, director, producer and star, Tommy Wiseau, has frequented Dallas for fan screenings of his debut in years past, but he is set to make his return for Big Shark, a long-awaited follow-up that’s only been seen by select audiences so far. Since The Room’s breakout as a cult classic, there has been much debate over whether Wiseau is a “one hit wonder,” but Dallas fans will get the chance to decide for themselves with Big Shark.
Wiseau will appear for two nights at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, where he will attend Q&A sessions for both of his films. The June 27 screening of The Room will likely be populated by fans who know the film by heart, as these screenings are often accompanied by traditions that include yelling lines at the screen and noting the recurring appearance of specific imagery.
However, a showing of Big Shark on June 28 is far more curious. Although the film first screened at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon in 2023, it has only ever played on the festival circuit, having yet to be made available on home media or for digital download.
Big Shark has become an anomaly within the independent film world, as its lack of availability has made it all the more intriguing. Wiseau is known to attend many events for The Room and participate in crowd shenanigans, but similar traditions have yet to be ironed out for Big Shark, as the film has never played in a market as significant as Dallas.
The saga of The Room is now a runaway example of the “American dream” that seems too strange for even Hollywood to conceive. Despite no experience and a limited understanding of the cinematic medium, Wiseau infamously came up with the story of The Room while living in Los Angeles with his roommate Greg Sestero, a struggling actor. Although Sestero agreed to co-star alongside Wiseau, the production was notoriously disastrous. The Room became a minor miracle, given its logical discrepancies, hastily developed subplots and feuds among the crew.
After rejections came from several potential distributors, the film was self-financed and released by Wiseau, who became an Internet pariah after copies of the film began to circulate. Wiseau’s intentions may have initially seemed sincere, but The Room was eventually hailed as a “so bad, it’s good” classic. Celebrity supporters Seth Rogen and Patton Oswalt expressed their fandom, and a series of late-night broadcasts on Adult Swim helped the movie become a viral sensation.
The degree to which Wiseau has wrestled with the film’s legacy is unclear, though. He has subsequently claimed that The Room is a “dark comedy,” but Sestero’s tell-all memoir, The Disaster Artist, portrayed Wiseau’s intentions in a much different light. Nonetheless, Wiseau has turned The Room into a brand, as he regularly tours the country for screenings and sells merchandise on his personal website.
The Room reached a cultural apex in 2017, when James Franco directed an adaptation of The Disaster Artist, in which he portrayed Wiseau. Franco’s brother, Dave, appeared as Sestero. Wiseau attended the 2018 Golden Globe ceremony in which Franco won the Best Actor trophy, and has since filmed cameo roles in several independent comedies.
Wiseau’s long-anticipated return to the director’s chair was teased as early as 2019, when a brief trailer was unveiled on Twitter. Despite some reports that it was a viral joke, production on the film continued in the aftermath of COVID-19-related shutdowns.
Described as an homage to “B-movies” and “creature features,” Big Shark centers on a group of firefighters from New Orleans who are tasked with saving the state from the titular monster. Although it's been perceived as a conscious effort on Wiseau’s part to be “in on the joke,” there may be a note of sincerity within the narrative. Wiseau, a former resident of New Orleans, has stated that while writing the film, he was inspired by the city’s perseverance amid Hurricane Katrina.
But even with the unknown shrouding much of Big Shark’s details, any Q&A that Wiseau attends is bound to be compelling, as he has kept his origin story rather ambiguous. Despite having appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and in Vanity Fair, Wiseau has never revealed the source of his funding.
There’s a good deal of irony that surrounds anything and everything that Wiseau has involved himself in, but a high-profile screening of a long-awaited movie is the type of “event cinema” that theaters need. Big Shark might not be what they had in mind as a tool to build audience trust, but the excitement from a screening with Wiseau likely couldn't be replicated anywhere else.
Tickets for the Big Shark screening and Q&A are available here.
