Bob Odenkirk Clarifies The Room's Connection To Tommy Wiseau Cult Classic As Remake Awaits Release

With three years gone since it was made, Bob Odenkirk is still not sure what’s keeping The Room Returns from getting a wide release.

The new adaptation of Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic was first announced in early 2023 with Brando Crawford directing, producing and co-starring in the greenscreen-based remake, with the proceeds going to the HIV/AIDS research organization, amfAR. Odenkirk was cast in the film as Johnny, the role originally played by Wiseau, while also starring alongside Bella Heathcote, Kate Siegel, Mike Flanagan and original star Greg Sestero, among others.

Now, in an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan in our SXSW media suite for Normal, Odenkirk opened up about The Room remake. Recalling having previously seen a “clip of a scene” from the film that he “was really happy with,” the two-time Emmy winner went on to expound on the film having been made “as a charity project,“ in which the team made it to donate the proceeds to both the aforementioned amfAR and the Actors Fund.

Looking toward the movie’s current lack of a wide release, Odenkirk admitted he doesn’t “know what the limitations are” for the remake, pondering that Crawford “didn’t have the full legal right” to produce his remake of The Room. With regard to how the new film is actually connected to Wiseau’s original, the star clarified that “my goal was to try to make it make sense” and that he only did “three quarters” of the original:

Bob Odenkirk: There’s a great video called, “Can A Great Actor Save Any Line?” Now, that’s not about me at all. I’m not in there in the least, but that’s the question I had when I went in. And it’s a great video, you should watch it. It’s on YouTube. And the question is, “Let’s say you have a clunker of a line” — or, in the case of The Room, an endless dream [Laughs] — “can you figure out how to make it make sense?” Because the interesting thing about The Room is my argument — and I’ll go to my death with this — is that the film is a fun, bad film to watch, because your brain actually understands what Tommy is trying to achieve. Like, you know what he thinks this moment is meant to be, or what this scene is meant to do plot wise, but he’s just falling a little bit short all the time — maybe a lot short.

Knowing “what [Tommy] wants me to feel here,” he and the rest of his Room Returns stars had to accept “there are a lot of leaps in logic and emotional logic.” He concluded by sharing that the scene he saw a clip of was when Johnny gives Lisa a flower from the flower shop at the beginning of the film, opining that “you can see us trying to make it work.”

Though having been produced for charitable reasons, there were previously plans to release the remake digitally in 2023, which has been pushed back throughout the years for a variety of reasons. Odenkirk previously indicated to ScreenRant that Wiseau was the reason for The Room remake not yet getting a wide release, potentially fearing the film was making fun of his original, as the filmmaker had yet to see it, despite Odenkirk’s assurance that wasn’t the goal.

If the writer/director/star is indeed the reason the film has yet to see a release, it’s likely to come as something of a surprise given James Franco’s adaptation of The Disaster Artist largely proceeded without interference. Though based on Sestero’s memoir of the same name, the A24 movie still revolved entirely around The Room, including using footage from the 2003 film, and didn’t encounter any legal issues in making its way to the screen.

Disaster Artist True Story: Tommy Wiseau’s Life & The Room Explained

James Franco’s The Disaster Artist was a comedy hit about Tommy Wiseau’s infamous The Room, though it’s often unclear what parts were real or made up.

Part of this legal issue is likely to be the way Wiseau has doled out the release rights to The Room in the 20 years since the film first came out. He’s previously claimed that Netflix rejected the opportunity to stream the film, which some have since speculated the rejection came from unreasonable requests on his part. Additionally, he briefly uploaded the film in its entirety to his YouTube account before taking it down the following day, while having since given the rights for midnight screenings, and to Fathom Events for a 20th anniversary re-release.

As such, it seems very possible that Odenkirk and the rest of the Room Returns team have simply not come up with a deal that Wiseau has found worthwhile. This doesn’t entirely rule out the possibility for the remake to one day get a proper release, but the writer/director may also be holding out hope for a better deal to release his own film digitally before Odenkirk’s, thus creating a potential major hurdle for the future.