| 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 Ferero |
| 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."
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 starring, written, directed, produced, and executive produced by Tommy Wiseau, who co-stars with Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centred 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 called so 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.
Flava Works, Inc. is a company that produces gay media featuring black and Latino men. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida, with a satellite office in Chicago, Illinois.
The Lago Agrio oil field is an oil-rich area near the city of Nueva Loja in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. It is located in the Western Oriente Basin. The site's hydrocarbon-bearing formations are the Cretaceous Napo and Hollin formations. Oil was discovered in the area in 1960s. The Lago Agrio field is known internationally for the serious ecological problems that oil development has created there, including water pollution, soil contamination, deforestation and cultural upheaval. Located in Cofan territory near the Colombian border, it is one of twelve production areas that developed when Ecuador began to export petroleum.
Lewis A. Kaplan is a senior United States district judge serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was the presiding judge in a number of cases involving high-profile defendants, including E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew, the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, and trials of Al Qaeda terrorists such as Ahmed Ghailani.
Gregory 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.
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.
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.
The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made is a 2013 non-fiction book written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. Sestero details the troubled development and production of the 2003 cult film The Room, his own struggles as a young actor, and his relationship with The Room director Tommy Wiseau.
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.
The Neighbors is a sitcom created, written, directed, produced by and starring Tommy Wiseau. In Wiseau's first project since his 2003 cult film The Room, The Neighbors follows the assorted tenants of an apartment building and their interactions with the "manager", Charlie, played by Wiseau. Four episodes were released on Hulu on March 14, 2015. Two additional episodes were released on May 26, 2015.
The Disaster Artist is a 2017 American biographical comedy-drama film starring, co-produced and directed by James Franco. It was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell's 2013 non-fiction book of the same title. The film chronicles an unlikely friendship between aspiring actors Tommy Wiseau and Sestero that results in the production of Wiseau's 2003 film The Room, widely considered one of the worst films ever made. The Disaster Artist stars brothers James and Dave Franco as Wiseau and Sestero, respectively, alongside a supporting cast featuring Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Josh Hutcherson, Jacki Weaver, and Seth Rogen.
Nautilus Productions LLC is an American video production, stock footage, and photography company incorporated in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1997. The principals are producer/director Rick Allen and photographer Cindy Burnham. Nautilus specializes in documentary production and underwater videography, and produced QAR DiveLive, a live webcast of underwater archaeology filmed at the wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge in 2000 and 2001.
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 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.