James Franco, Seth Rogen Take On Cult Classic 'The Room' for New Line

Franco will direct 'The Disaster Artist,' which will detail the making of one of the worst movies of all time.

New Line is in negotiations to acquire The Disaster Artist, a film package that sees James Franco direct a making-of movie about the 2003 drama The Room, which is widely considered one of the worst movies of all time.

Franco will do double duty to star as Tommy Wiseau, the director and star of The Room. The movie played in a couple of local Los Angeles theaters and soon was pulled, due to mostly empty venues. Soon after, however, Wiseau got requests for the film to be shown, and it played midnights at Laemmle's Sunset 5, where, for many, seeing it became a ritual. It also helped that many celebrities, including Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd, began showing up to watch it. And for years, a giant billboard graced La Cienega Boulevard in Hollywood with Wiseau's disheveled visage.

The Room centered on the melodramatic love triangle between a man, his fiance and his best friend. Greg Sestero, who starred in The Room, and Tom Bissell wrote the 2013 nonfiction book The Disaster Artist, which chronicled the shoot. Sestero described his life as a struggling actor and what it was like to work with the mysterious and eccentric Wiseau, who had no filmmaking experience when he set out to write, direct and produce The Room.

James Franco's brother Dave (Neighbors) is attached to play Sestero in The Disaster Artist. Seth Rogen, who also is producing through Point Grey Pictures along with Evan Goldberg, Vince Jolivette and Franco, is in talks to star as well. Good Universe also is producing and handled the deal with New Line.

Rogen and Franco are frequent collaborators, their most recent project together being The Interview, which led to the devastating hack of the film's studio, Sony. They previously worked together on This Is the End, Pineapple Express and the TV series Freaks and Geeks.

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who penned The Spectacular Now and The Fault in Our Stars, wrote the script. The project is planned for a Dec. 7 start date.

For those who need a reminder of what The Room was all about, the trailer is below.