By Travis Johnson
The Sydney Underground Film Festival has scrapped plans to screen the documentary, Room Full of Spoons, following the threat of legal action by the film’s subject, enigmatic director Tommy Wiseau.
Directed by Rock Harper, Room Full of Spoons was initially undertaken with Wiseau’s full coperation, but the director of The Room later turned against the project. Conjecturally, that may be because the film delves deeply into the secretive Wiseau past, revealing his (alleged) birthplace and (again, alleged) real name.
Wiseau took similar steps to prevent Room Full of Spoons screening at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in July.
SUFF director Stefan Popescu said “Ironically, this is the biggest censorship issue our festival has ever had, and it is not from the government – it’s from the man who has delusions of cinematic adequacy, Tommy Wiseau. Over the past decade, the festival has tirelessly petitioned, negotiated, side-stepped legal pitfalls and government censorship to bring the most contentious and outlandish films to our audience, so it has hit us from left field to have to pull our first film ever in a decade. Nonetheless, we see the humour and irony in being censored for the first time in a decade by the man who is reputed to be one of the world’s worst filmmakers”.
In place of Room Full of Spoons, SUFF will be screening The Room with Wiseau’s full endorsement.
For more information, hit the SUFF official site.
Read our interview with Room Full of Spoons director, Rock Harper, here.
