Did you know that chocolate is the symbol of love?
Actor turned screenwriter Robyn Paris certainly knows this. It's a line from cult hit The Room regularly repeated to her by the legion of dedicated fans of the bizarre and beloved, unintentionally hilarious 2003 feature labelled "the Citizen Kane of bad movies".
![Having the last laugh: The cast of <i>The Room</i> are set to reunite for a mockumentary.](/web/20161112082850im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/3/k/9/2/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.11lsm8.png/1416006184563.jpg)
Not only that, but the film's mysterious auteur Tommy Wiseau - who wrote, directed and took the lead role - is claiming chocolate and other prominent props from the film such as roses and football as his intellectual property. It's in response to Paris' new Kickstarter project, The Room Actors: Where Are They Now?, a new film that will delight fans of Wiseau's movie. "I was like, this is crazy," Paris says. "This project is about actors from The Room, it's not rehashing scenes or anything like that."
It's one of the minor battles facing Paris as she attempts to raise $28,000 to fund the short mockumentary about those who starred in The Room, which she hopes will provide something new to fans, and also give a voice to the actors indelibly - and rather unwittingly - stamped on the disaster piece.
Paris was a struggling actor newly arrived in LA when she appeared in the film, hoping to build her show reel but not expecting anyone to actually see it - a story shared by the film's co-stars including Juliette Danielle, Philip Haldiman and Carolyn Minnott.
The movie was intended as a serious emotional drama but embraced as a cult classic for its deluge of flaws: terrible acting, a poor script and a nonsensical, almost non-existent plot.
Now fans pack out cinemas in fancy dress for screenings worldwide, shouting out lines, bringing along replica props and having a riot in the kind of community spirit similar to The Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings some years back.
It was celebrity fan Michael Cera who, at one of the LA screenings, told Paris to really embrace her place in movie history.
"It took a while for it to sink in, and then I realised I just can't escape it," she says from LA. "So I thought why not embrace it and really have fun with it, and do something new and creative for the fans."
Another star of the film, Greg Sestero, has written an acclaimed book about his experiences of the film and working with Wiseau, The Disaster Artist. Seth Rogen and James Franco are working on an adaptation of the book, working with screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Fault in Our Stars, 500 Days of Summer). Franco will direct and play Wiseau.
Paris says she hopes her film shows that the actors have come to terms with The Room.
"We felt like we were on this boat riding the wave that we didn't really want to be on in the first place," she says. "But we are on it and we can't really get off and don't have a paddle. So part of this is just grabbing that paddle and taking a little bit of control over the direction of the boat."
The Room screens at the Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne at 9.30pm on November 14.