Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast BSP 133: The RAW and Scandalous Truth Behind the Writing of Boondock Saints with Troy Duffy
Aug 11, 2021
02:08:34
I’m sure many of you are familiar with the cult indie film classic The Boondock Saints. But many of you might not know the crazy story of its writer and director Troy Duffy.
Well, prepare to get your mind BLOWN. I had an EXCLUSIVE discussion with Troy this week, and let's say, he did not hold back. Nothing was off-limits - from his instant rise to fame to the brutal fate he met - getting blacklisted, all of it. He wanted to set the record straight because there is always another side to the story, and what better side to hear than that of the man who lived this brutal Hollywood adventure?
Troy Duffy moved to Hollywood in his twenties to chase the dream of a music career with his band, The Brood. While seeking music gigs, he tended bar at a local Los Angeles dive, where he wrote the screenplay for The Boondock Saints during his break periods.
The muse for the script happened one day when he came home from his job to find a dead hooker being wheeled out of a drug dealer’s apartment across the hall. Duffy went and rented a computer (as he couldn’t afford to buy one) and wrote the screenplay for The Boondock Saints based on his feelings of disgust at what he had just seen. As he puts it:
I decided right there that out of sheer frustration and not being able to afford a psychologist, I was going to write this, think about it. People watching the news sometimes get so disgusted by what they see. Susan Smith drowning her kids... guys going into McDonald's, lighting up the whole place. You hear things that disgust you so much that even if you're Mother Teresa, there comes a breaking point. One day you're gonna watch the news and you're gonna say,
'Whoever did that despicable thing should pay with their life. You think — for maybe just a minute — that whoever did that should die, without any fuckin' jury. I was going to give everybody that sick fantasy. And tell it as truthfully as I could. I wrote Boondock Saints in three sections. I wrote the very beginning and then I started thinking of cool shit for the middle. Then somehow between the beginning and the middle, the ending dictated itself.
The screenplay featured two brothers in Boston dedicated to killing Mafia thugs. He successfully got the script into the hands of Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films, who bought the screenplay for $300,000 intending to film the movie on a $15,000,000 budget.
Now what happened over the next three years is a remarkable cautionary tale. I saw this documentary called Overnight, the 2003 documentary that chronicled Duffy’s rise and fall. Troy was portrayed in the film as an egomaniacal maniac, obsessed with the heights of his talent and abusive to his friends. He goes on to lose his mega-deal, with the now conflict sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, his friends, and his Hollywood connections.
Of course, there are two sides to every story. Troy took full responsibility for what he did and said in the documentary but as I told him editing can be a bitch. The filmmakers amplified the negative, manufactured storylines and really damaged Troy's film career. I mean the film made Troy look insane. You can watch the film by CLICKING HERE and make up your own mind.
Now, this should have been the end of the tale but we all love a great comeback story. After being dropped by Harvey and Miramax, still believing that the film was a hot commodity, Troy Duffy convinced agents at the William Morris Agency to help him market it to other studios.
The independent production company Franchise Pictures agreed to finance the project, for $7 million, less than half of Miramax’s original budget. The Boondock Saints grossed over $50 million in domestic video sales, of which Troy Duffy received nothing due to the bad deal he signed with the distribution company but after the debacle of the Miramax deal, he didn’t have many options.
According to Troy Duffy, no one on the film got paid; not him, his producers, or the cast. He sued Franchise Pictures for royalties of the first film, merchandise, and sequel rights. After a lengthy lawsuit, Troy, his producers, and the principal cast received an undisclosed amount of The Boondock Saints royalties as well as the sequel rights.
Years later, Troy Duffy finally returned for the sequel to The Boondock Saints, titled The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day which was released on October 30, 2009.
The film grossed $11 million at the box office (the film was released limited, never playing on more than 524 screens) and has grossed over $50 million in DVD sales (as of June 2012). The film had an $8 million budget.
Currently, Duffy has several projects in development, including “Boondock Saints III.”
Troy Duffy receives the golden ticket and then struggled to deal with it but it seemed that was the journey he needed to take as a filmmaker, a person, and a human being. If put on the same path in my early twenties I don’t know how I would have reacted. I would have probably wouldn’t have fared well at all.
Troy and I dive into the deep end of the pool in this conversation. He revealed things he never had before. We discuss the making of Overnight, his interactions with the now-disgraced Harvey Weinstein, and where he sees himself going from here.
Enjoy my exclusive and entertaining as hell conversation with Troy Duffy.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.
Well, prepare to get your mind BLOWN. I had an EXCLUSIVE discussion with Troy this week, and let's say, he did not hold back. Nothing was off-limits - from his instant rise to fame to the brutal fate he met - getting blacklisted, all of it. He wanted to set the record straight because there is always another side to the story, and what better side to hear than that of the man who lived this brutal Hollywood adventure?
Troy Duffy moved to Hollywood in his twenties to chase the dream of a music career with his band, The Brood. While seeking music gigs, he tended bar at a local Los Angeles dive, where he wrote the screenplay for The Boondock Saints during his break periods.
The muse for the script happened one day when he came home from his job to find a dead hooker being wheeled out of a drug dealer’s apartment across the hall. Duffy went and rented a computer (as he couldn’t afford to buy one) and wrote the screenplay for The Boondock Saints based on his feelings of disgust at what he had just seen. As he puts it:
I decided right there that out of sheer frustration and not being able to afford a psychologist, I was going to write this, think about it. People watching the news sometimes get so disgusted by what they see. Susan Smith drowning her kids... guys going into McDonald's, lighting up the whole place. You hear things that disgust you so much that even if you're Mother Teresa, there comes a breaking point. One day you're gonna watch the news and you're gonna say,
'Whoever did that despicable thing should pay with their life. You think — for maybe just a minute — that whoever did that should die, without any fuckin' jury. I was going to give everybody that sick fantasy. And tell it as truthfully as I could. I wrote Boondock Saints in three sections. I wrote the very beginning and then I started thinking of cool shit for the middle. Then somehow between the beginning and the middle, the ending dictated itself.
The screenplay featured two brothers in Boston dedicated to killing Mafia thugs. He successfully got the script into the hands of Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films, who bought the screenplay for $300,000 intending to film the movie on a $15,000,000 budget.
Now what happened over the next three years is a remarkable cautionary tale. I saw this documentary called Overnight, the 2003 documentary that chronicled Duffy’s rise and fall. Troy was portrayed in the film as an egomaniacal maniac, obsessed with the heights of his talent and abusive to his friends. He goes on to lose his mega-deal, with the now conflict sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, his friends, and his Hollywood connections.
Of course, there are two sides to every story. Troy took full responsibility for what he did and said in the documentary but as I told him editing can be a bitch. The filmmakers amplified the negative, manufactured storylines and really damaged Troy's film career. I mean the film made Troy look insane. You can watch the film by CLICKING HERE and make up your own mind.
Now, this should have been the end of the tale but we all love a great comeback story. After being dropped by Harvey and Miramax, still believing that the film was a hot commodity, Troy Duffy convinced agents at the William Morris Agency to help him market it to other studios.
The independent production company Franchise Pictures agreed to finance the project, for $7 million, less than half of Miramax’s original budget. The Boondock Saints grossed over $50 million in domestic video sales, of which Troy Duffy received nothing due to the bad deal he signed with the distribution company but after the debacle of the Miramax deal, he didn’t have many options.
According to Troy Duffy, no one on the film got paid; not him, his producers, or the cast. He sued Franchise Pictures for royalties of the first film, merchandise, and sequel rights. After a lengthy lawsuit, Troy, his producers, and the principal cast received an undisclosed amount of The Boondock Saints royalties as well as the sequel rights.
Years later, Troy Duffy finally returned for the sequel to The Boondock Saints, titled The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day which was released on October 30, 2009.
The film grossed $11 million at the box office (the film was released limited, never playing on more than 524 screens) and has grossed over $50 million in DVD sales (as of June 2012). The film had an $8 million budget.
Currently, Duffy has several projects in development, including “Boondock Saints III.”
Troy Duffy receives the golden ticket and then struggled to deal with it but it seemed that was the journey he needed to take as a filmmaker, a person, and a human being. If put on the same path in my early twenties I don’t know how I would have reacted. I would have probably wouldn’t have fared well at all.
Troy and I dive into the deep end of the pool in this conversation. He revealed things he never had before. We discuss the making of Overnight, his interactions with the now-disgraced Harvey Weinstein, and where he sees himself going from here.
Enjoy my exclusive and entertaining as hell conversation with Troy Duffy.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.