If you’re a fan of Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” and you have a Netflix subscription, you’re probably aware of two things: 1) James Franco’s film, “The Disaster Artist,” is now available to stream on the platform and 2) “The Room” is not. For some film fans, that might seem like a completely ridiculous oversight. Wouldn’t Netflix want to showcase both “The Disaster Artist” and the original film that inspired it? According to Wiseau, the answer is no.
On social media, Wiseau was asked if Netflix has plans to stream “The Room” considering the service recently landed the streaming rights to “The Disaster Artist,” which is Franco’s retelling of the behind-the-scenes drama that the filmmaker and his cast and crew experienced while filming the cult-favorite film. The filmmaker’s reply is short and simple.
Wiseau tweeted, “Netflix said no.”
So, if you’re flipping through the thousands of films in Netflix’s library of titles, hoping to find “The Room” to accompany your viewing of “The Disaster Artist,” you’re out of luck and likely won’t be able to find it in the future, either. What Wiseau doesn’t answer is why Netflix would say no?
If you’ve seen “The Disaster Artist,” you know that Wiseau is an interesting character, to say the least. The guy you see leading the cast in “The Room” is probably more eccentric and strange than the character from his first film. Not much is known about his origins and how he came into the money to pay for the production of his feature film. But in the years since the release of “The Room,” Wiseau has become a cult legend, attending midnight screenings, selling underwear, and blessing fans. Perhaps there’s more to the story about why Netflix said no and it’s not as simple as saying the platform just didn’t want “The Room?”
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that maybe Wiseau was being a bit unreasonable with his demands for the streaming rights, as the filmmaker has kept a tight lid on the business dealings surrounding “The Room.” Even now, you can’t find Wiseau’s film on VOD at all, as he keeps “The Room” on physical media only. So, there’s no way of knowing what the negotiation between Netflix and the filmmaker looked like.
That being said, at the end of the day, “The Room” isn’t streaming on Netflix. So if you want to have a double-feature with that film and “The Disaster Artist,” you should probably make sure your DVD player is hooked up.