When it emerged that James Franco was making a film about ‘best worst movie of all time’ The Room, most assumed this was going to be a pretty esoteric passion project - an oddity for cult fans that might find life on somewhere like Netflix.

Upon screening a “work-in-progress” cut at SXSW this week though, The Disaster Artist’s being labelled Oscar-worthy.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard such thunderous rolls of laughter at the Paramount Theatre, thanks to a tour-de-force (and career-best) performance by Franco,” Ramin Setoodeh writes in Variety.

“The Academy typically doesn’t honor comedies, but there are elements in “The Disaster Artist” that may be hard to resist…Warner Bros. doesn’t have a release date set yet, but whenever The Disaster Artist hits theaters, it’s sure to be a formidable hit, especially once word-of-mouth gets out.”

Franco plays confounding auteur Tommy Wiseau in the film, with Greg Sestero, who appeared in The Room, returning and Bryan Cranston even dropping in to play himself in his Malcolm in the Middle days.

In a glowing review, The Hollywood Reporter described The Disaster Artist as a "giddy, winning balance between hilarity and heart."