James Franco says he’ll direct and star in a behind-the-scenes movie about ‘The Room’

James Franco’s company Rabbit Bandini Productions has optioned the rights to The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. Written by Tom Bissell and actor Greg Sestero, The Disaster Artist recounts the making of 2003 cult film The Room, often described as one of the worst films ever made. According to Deadline, Franco plans to direct and co-produce an adaptation of the book with business partner Vince Jolivette, as well as Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s company Point Grey Productions. On Instagram, Franco also said that he and his brother Dave Franco would star in the movie.

Franco has written about The Disaster Artist in the past; after its release in late 2013, he described it as “a great portrayal of hopefuls coming to Los Angeles to pursue their ambitions, and an even greater examination of what it means to be a creative person with a dream, and trying to make it come true in a form that is just as much a business, and an insider social group, as it is an art.”

Filmed for a surprisingly high $6 million but initially distributed only in Southern California, The Room has since spent years on the theater circuit worldwide. Beyond its over-the-top melodrama, disjointed narrative, and poor filmmaking, its popularity has stemmed partly from interest in mysterious writer/director/lead actor Tommy Wiseau, who Franco describes as “part vampire, part Hollywood dreamer, part gangster, part Ed Wood, and super lonely.”