James Franco’s comedy “The Disaster Artist” has nabbed a distributor and an awards-seasons release date.

A24 is partnered with New Line Cinema on the movie, which will hit theaters on Dec. 1 for exclusive engagements in the U.S., followed by a nationwide release on Dec. 8. New Line parent Warner Bros. Pictures will oversee the international distribution, with release dates to be determined.

“Disaster Artist” screened in March as a work in progress at South by Southwest, where it received a standing ovation. Critics were impressed with Franco’s performance as Tommy Wiseau in the film about the making of Wiseau’s so-bad-that-it’s-good film “The Room.”

Variety‘s Peter Debruge wrote in his review: “Like such kindred spirits in quantity over quality as Tyler Perry and Joe Swanberg, James Franco has made a crapload of movies. Sooner or later, he was bound to deliver a good one. But who would have thought his adaptation of Greg Sestero’s ‘The Disaster Artist,’ an outrageous blow-by-blow account of the actor-turned-author’s friendship with the aggressively untalented and infinitely enigmatic creator of one of the worst movies of this century — ‘The Room’ writer-director-star Tommy Wiseau — would turn out to be the best and most professional entry on his own résumé?”
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