ROOM FULL OF SPOONS (2016): Tommy Wiseau Ordered to Pay Damages to Makers of THE ROOM Documentary

Wiseau ordered to pay nearly $700K for obstructing doc’s release

Tommy Wiseau must pay nearly $700,000 to the makers of Room Full of Spoons (2016), an unauthorized documentary about his infamous film, The Room.

Room Full of Spoons was originally set to be released in 2017, assumedly to take advantage of the cultural zeitgeist with the release of the other The Room-adjacent project The Disaster Artist. However, according to IMDb, the documentary has only played once – at the CutreCon Film Festival in Madrid, Spain back in January of 2016.

Wiseau originally demanded exorbitant licensing fees from the documentarians for use of clips from The Room. He also required final cut on the doc, so that it would show him in a positive light.

When the filmmakers opted to use the clips under the fair use doctrine, Wiseau sought to stall the doc’s release. He filed suit and obtained an injunction against the doc in Ontario Superior Court in 2017. A trial was held in back in January of 2020, with the final verdict given on April 23. Judge Paul Schabas ruled in favor of the documentarians, citing that their use of the clips was not excessive.

“In my view this action was brought for the improper purpose of preventing the release of a documentary disliked by Tommy Wiseau,” Schabas wrote. “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.”

Schabas ordered Wiseau to pay the documentarians – including the director Richard Harper and producers Fernando Forero, Mark Racicot, and Richard Towns – a total of $550,000 USD in lost revenue, as well as an additional $200,000 CAD (or about $140,000 USD) in punitive damages for Wiseau’s “oppressive and outrageous” conduct.

Additional Offenses

Wiseau also objected to the inclusion of his birth name, birth date, and Polish birthplace in the doc – topics which he’s been infamously coy about. Wiseau cited it as an invasion of privacy, but Schabas disagreed and said it did not qualify as a civil offense in Canada.

“This information was available from public sources, which is how the defendants obtained and confirmed it,” Schabas described. “Wiseau may be sensitive about this information because he has cultivated an aura of mystery around it, but disclosure of these facts is not, objectively speaking, something which can be described as ‘highly offensive.’”

With the case finally closed, director Harper is hopeful that Room Full of Spoons will finally find its wider audience. He is currently seeking out a distributor, and hopes that a streaming platform will pick it up.

“This case is a very big deal for any creatives or documentary filmmakers here in Canada,” Harper regaled, after what he described as a “frivolous” experience.

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