| Room Full of Spoons | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Rick Harper [1] |
| Written by | Rick Harper |
| Starring |
|
| Narrated by | Rick Harper |
| Cinematography | Martin Racicot |
| Edited by | Fernando Forero |
| Music by | Mladen Milicevic |
Production companies | RockHaven Pictures Parktown Studios |
| Distributed by | RockHaven Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 113 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
Room Full of Spoons is a 2016 Canadian documentary film directed by Rick Harper about the 2003 cult film The Room .
Rick Harper, "Canadian documentary maker and The Room superfan", [2] a longtime associate of Tommy Wiseau, director of the infamous 2003 film The Room, explores the story behind the film's troubled production and researches Wiseau's mysterious background, concluding that he is Polish and originally from the city of Poznań. [3]
Ottawa filmmaker Rick Harper, with Fernando Forero, Martin Racicot and Richard Towns, formed Rockhaven Pictures.[ when? ] [4]
On February 10, 2016, Rick Harper introduced [5] Room Full of Spoons at University of Sheffield Students' Union, with questions and answers with Ryan Finnigan, author of The Room: The Definitive Guide. [6]
After a brief theatrical run in April 2016, the documentary was quickly pulled when independent theaters reported receiving legal notices of copyright infringement from Tommy Wiseau, the director, writer, producer, and star of The Room. [7] Another attempt to release the film in 2017 to capitalize on the film The Disaster Artist was stymied by Wiseau, who filed an injunction in Ontario courts, preventing a DVD release of the film and setting up a lengthy legal battle. After a final trial in January 2020, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge Paul Schabas ruled in favour of the makers of Room Full of Spoons, therefore allowing the film to be marketed and released. He ordered Wiseau to pay the filmmakers US$550,000 [8] in compensatory damages, CDN$200,000 in punitive damages, and defendants' court costs. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Wiseau Studio appealed the Superior Court of Ontario's April 2020 Judgement, and on July 23, 2021, Wiseau's appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal for Ontario. [14]
On January 15, 2021, in Wiseau Studio, LLC v. Harper, 2021 ONCA 31, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, for the first time, an Ontario court ordered security for a trial judgment pending appeal. [15]
Kazaa Media Desktop. was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc., which lasted until August 2012.
Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or strategic litigation against public participation, are lawsuits intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
In law, a summary judgment, also referred to as judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition, is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of an entire case, or on discrete issues in that case. The formulation of the summary judgment standard is stated in somewhat different ways by courts in different jurisdictions. In the United States, the presiding judge generally must find there is "no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." In England and Wales, the court rules for a party without a full trial when "the claim, defence or issue has no real prospect of success and there is no other compelling reason why the case or issue should be disposed of at a trial."
Garth Drabinsky is a Canadian film and theatrical producer and entrepreneur. In 2009, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for fraud and forgery. The sentence was reduced from 7 to 5 years in prison, on appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear a subsequent appeal. In April 2023, a judge dismissed Drabinsky’s defamation lawsuit against American Actor’s Equity for placing him on their ‘Do Not Work’ list. Drabinsky has attempted 3 comebacks all resulting in failure and millions of investor dollars being lost.
Free Dominion was a Canadian conservative internet forum. The site used the phrase "Principled Conservativism" to describe its ideology.
Westgate Resorts is an American timeshare resort company founded by David A. Siegel in 1982.
Thomas Pierre Wiseau is a Polish-American actor and filmmaker. He is known for writing, producing, directing, and starring in the 2003 film The Room, which has been described by many critics as one of the worst films ever made and has gained cult status. He also co-directed the 2004 documentary Homeless in America and created the 2015 sitcom The Neighbors.
The Room is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a melodramatic love triangle between amiable banker Johnny (Wiseau), his deceptive fiancée Lisa (Danielle), and his conflicted best friend Mark (Sestero). The work was reportedly intended to be semi-autobiographical in nature. According to Wiseau, the title alludes to the potential of a room to be the site of both good and bad events. The stage play from which the film is derived was so named due to its events taking place entirely in a single room.
Chippewas of Sarnia Band v Canada (AG), 2000 CanLII 16991, 51 OR (3d) 641; 195 DLR (4th) 135 was a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario concerning aboriginal title in Canada.
Jeffrey Konvitz is an American attorney, writer, and film producer. He was raised in Woodmere, New York and graduated from Hewlett High School in 1962. He continued his education at Cornell University and the Columbia University School of Law (1969). Konvitz is probably best known for writing the novel The Sentinel, published in 1974. It was followed by a film adaptation in 1977, which he produced and adapted from the novel.
Anderson v. Cryovac was a federal lawsuit concerning toxic contamination of groundwater in 1986 in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Greg Sestero is an American actor, filmmaker, model and author, best known for his role as Mark in the 2003 cult film The Room, as well as for his well-received memoir The Disaster Artist, detailing his experiences making The Room, which itself was later adapted into a 2017 film.
DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. v. Kaleidescape, Inc., 176 Cal. App. 4th 697 is a legal case heard by the California Court of Appeal concerning breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. It discusses incorporation by reference regarding a supplemental document that was not part of the written license agreement between the parties. The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court's judgment and ruled in favor of the plaintiff, finding that defendant was bound to the entire contract, including the supplemental document.
The Room Tribute is a point-and-click adventure game released on September 3, 2010, that serves as an unofficial adaptation of the 2003 film The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau. It was programmed by Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp, with artwork by Newgrounds staff member Jeff "JohnnyUtah" Bandelin, and music by animator Chris "OneyNG" O'Neill. The game was designed in the style of 16-bit graphics, much like similar games based on the films Tremors and The Hunger Games for Newgrounds' own 2010 and 2012 April Fools jokes.
Mladen Milicevic is a composer of experimental music, sound installation, and film music. He is a professor and has been for many years the Chair of the Recording Arts Department at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is best known for composing the score to the cult film The Room.
The Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act is a statute of the Parliament of Canada that allows insolvent corporations owing their creditors in excess of $5 million to restructure their businesses and financial affairs.
Astley v Verdun, 2011 ONSC 3651, is a leading defamation decision released by Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The case was publicized for the amount of damages awarded to the plaintiff, and the permanent injunction ordered against the defendant.
Hryniak v Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7 is a landmark case of the Supreme Court of Canada that supports recent reforms to Canadian civil procedure in the area of granting summary judgment in civil cases.
Best F(r)iends is a 2017 American dark comedy thriller film starring Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero. Written and produced by Sestero in two parts, it marks the reunion of Wiseau and Sestero 15 years after making the cult classic film The Room. The plot follows a homeless drifter in Los Angeles who begins working at a morgue, only to realize his boss is hiding a mysterious past.
Big Shark is a 2023 American comedy-horror film written, directed and produced by Tommy Wiseau, and starring Wiseau, Isaiah LaBorde and Mark Valeriano as three firefighters who must save New Orleans from a killer shark.
Schabas ordered Wiseau to pay $550,000 to the documentary makers — Richard Harper, Fernando Forero McGrath, Mark Racicot and Richard Towns — in lost revenue due to the thwarted release. He also awarded an extra 200,000 Canadian dollars (about $140,000 U.S.) in punitive damages, citing Wiseau's "oppressive and outrageous" conduct toward the documentary makers. Schabas found that Wiseau had engaged in bad faith negotiations in an effort to forestall the release of the documentary. "In doing so, the plaintiffs were concerned with protecting and maximizing the value of 'The Disaster Artist,' in which the plaintiffs have a financial interest," the judge ruled
Legal findings: Copyright; Fair dealing; Moral rights; Intrusion upon seclusion; Counterclaim;
The court wrote that it failed to see how the director's work was distorted or mutilated by the documentary, and even if Wiseau was found to have been associated with the documentary, it did not prejudice his reputation or honour (as required by the Copyright Act) for the simple reason that the documentary's commentary on "The Room" as being a terrible film was nothing new.
