After 20 long years, The Room auteur Tommy Wiseau is back with a new narrative feature film Big Shark — and you better believe it’s got an extremely big shark in it.
For those anxious to see if the man behind one of the strangest cult classics in film history still has what it takes to delight and confuse audiences in equal measure, the new Big Shark trailer should offer plenty of hope. The clip starts as a classic heart-pumping action movie, with an intense boxing sequence and big text graphics building up to the reveal of the titular Big Shark (which is apparently capable of living for extended periods on land so it can chase people down city streets).
Here’s the thing though, the actual “trailer” for Big Shark only lasts about a minute. After that, the clip pivots to a black-and-white ad for Tommy Wiseau-branded underwear, aptly dubbed “Twunderwear.” Yup — he’s still got it.
Big Shark will tell the story of three firefighters, Georgie, Patrick, and Tim, tasked with saving New Orleans from, well, the big shark. The flick stars Wiseau, Isaiah Laborde, and Mark Valeriano.
Anticipation for Big Shark has been building for a couple years, with Wiseau first sharing a trailer back in 2019. The movie is now set to start hitting theaters next month, with a debut screening in Portland, Oregon on April 2. Additional screenings are scheduled for New Orleans (April 28 and 29), San Francisco (May 5 and 6), Los Angeles (June 2 and 3), and New York City (Aug. 10, 11 and 12). As Variety notes, the slow theatrical rollout will take place over eight months, before the “Official Final Cut Version” of Big Shark finally drops.
Big Shark marks the first narrative movie Wiseau has written, directed, produced, and starred in since The Room arrived in 2003 (he did write, direct, and produce a documentary, Homeless in America, the following year). In the 20 years since its release, The Room has become a certified cult classic, and Wiseau has stayed busy with a variety of projects, most notably a 2015 Hulu sitcom, The Neighbors. The making of The Room was also the subject of the 2017 film, The Disaster Artist, directed by and starring James Franco.