- davidahallnum5
The Room in 3D?
Updated: Apr 8, 2023
The infamous film The Room from 2003 is a passion project by Tommy Wiseau that was virtually unknown upon its release. But when it later garnered attention through a few audience reactions, the movie would later become a surprise hit through midnight screening and would go on to become a cult classic. If all that makes the movie sound like a hidden gem, it is, but for all the wrong reasons. With a production that's just about as interesting as the movie itself, The Room has become infamous for how it takes all aspects of cinema from characters to story to emotion to acting to screenwriting and flips them all on their head. The result is one of the most surreal movie experiences you've ever had, and one that it'd be a shame to miss out on. Even if you've never heard of The Room, you've probably at least heard the classic lines ranging from "What a story, Mark" to "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" to everyone's personal favorite, "Oh hi, Mark." In one way or another, this film has certainly made a mark on pop culture. The many layers to The Room's plot holes, inconsistent storytelling, and bizzare filmmaking decisions are enough to fill at least several articles, and there have been many people to cover all of them in great detail. However, at the 3D Dinosaur, we're here to talk about only one of them.
In January 2018, a Facebook user asked if we're going to see The Room get an HD video release, to which Tommy Wiseau responded "5.1, 4K, 3D". While the first two elements Tommy mentioned might certainly grab some attention, it's the third element that captures the 3D Dinosaur's attention, and for more reasons than you might expect. On one hand, yes. I would personally like to see The Room in three-dimensional glory. Would it improve the movie, absolutely not. But it'd be tons of fun to feel immersed in all of the film's fantastic moments ranging from the flower shop scene to the football games in the alleyway to the rooftop where the most famous line in the movie is said. On the other hand, the road to getting that 3D version seems a bit too big to climb.
For those of you who don't know, Tommy Wiseau was the main guy running the whole show when it came to The Room's production, which resulted in many strange choices being made that have not really helped the film to get made in an effective and orderly manner. Things such as constant reshoots, purchasing equipment instead of renting it, filming the movie twice (Tommy Wiseau didn't know the difference between filming on HD cameras and 35mm. But instead of having someone explain it to him, he decided to create a special rig that would hold both an HD and a 35mm camera to shoot every scene and by the end of production, he would go with which version he thought looked the best), and shooting scenes in a studio that could've easily been shot on location with a cheap permit resulted in the film's budget swelling to over $6,000,000. Why do I bring this up, you're probably asking? Well, it's to show you how Tommy Wiseau isn't always a man who knows what he's doing when it comes to the technical details. So when he says The Room will eventually be available in 3D, there is a possibility he's just spitballing or he doesn't actually know what it'll take to get his little movie into the third dimension. Or then again, that might not entirely be the case.
When you first here that The Room will be coming out in 3D, your first thought might be that it's gonna get a 3D conversion like most other movies of this sort that weren't filmed with 3D in mind. That would be the rational man's idea. But if you know anything about Tommy Wiseau, you'll know he has other plans. And according to an article from ScreenRant, his plans include reshooting the entire film, but with native 3D cameras. The article states that during an interview with Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau about the success of The Room, Tommy said this about the 3D version, "My idea is to actually do 3D but technology has changed and I need to maybe reshoot it - with all the imperfections of course - in 3D. Because I do have the footage... it'll be cheaper to reshoot it if you ask me based on the technology, my resources, than just to use what we have. So that's the plan for The Room." In other words, he'd rather go back and start the film from scratch with the native 3D process than do a thoughtful conversion as it'd cost less money.
To a degree, yes. Native 3D is cheaper than a conversion. But having to shoot the movie all over again would certainly bring in its own set of problems, the least of which Tommy Wiseau would be the last person you'd want to handle. Sure the bad acting might have garnered some laughs the first time around. But doing it all over again for the 3D version seems like they would be expected lightning to strike the same place twice which, as Birdemic 2 showed us, doesn't happen very often. That being said, a natively done 3D version of The Room might not be entirely impossible. And with the dual camera rig I mentioned earlier, it could be possible for them to splice both the 35mm and HD footage together to mimic the two perspectives of the eyes. However, the difference in quality of both negatives might be somewhat distracting. And there's also the issue involving the green-screens. Plus, there's no guarantee the positions of the cameras would have aligned for a proper 3D image. All in all, it seems like going native 3D thing on this sort of film isn't really feasible. But then again, Tommy Wiseau hasn't gained his infamous reputation for doing things others would consider to be feasible.
The other option here would be for them to push for a 3D conversion which as Tommy has pointed out, would be the more expensive option. But done right and by people who know what they're doing, it could turn out well. And considering how Tom was somehow able to miraculously afford to make his 6 million dollar movie, it might not be totally out of the cards. Still, considering that The Last Airbender's conversion cost 5-10 million dollars and it still turned out to be one of the worst 3D films in history, Tommy's hesitation is understandable. A bad movie can certainly be fun to watch, but the same can't be said for a bad 3D movie.
Now keep in mind, this whole 3D talk started 5 years ago in 2018. And so far, we haven't gotten any more word about the film's 3D treatment. So I wouldn't really get my hopes up on seeing The Room in 3D anytime soon. I bring this up though because it seems to be an idea that's been stuck on the back-burner for Tommy Wiseau. Personally, I'd like to see him try and get a 3D version of this film off the ground so we could experience the movie's terribleness in another dimension. And especially with the release and success of Avatar 2 in 3D, now might be a good time for Wiseau and Sestero to start weighing their option. While I don't know for sure what Tommy would end up doing in the end, I bet the results would still be interesting to see none the less. And it might even help spice up some future midnight screenings of the film.
SOURCES:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE "THE ROOM" IN 3D ONE DAY?
0%Yes, ah hahaha.
0%No. Leave that stupid idea in your pocket.
0%Oh, hi Mark.