Hey folks, Harry here with the oh so envious of Moriarty's corner situation... Massawyrm. Watch the weasel dance for the position. It's sad though, he just doesn't have Moriarty's nose for the grind ya know? Damn that hits the spot. Well, enough of the BEHIND scenes here at AICN, and on to Massawyrm's behind the scenes low-down on the BOONDOCK SAINTS 2, something that we've all... been, um... dying to hear about... ummm, yeah... heheheheheh
Hola all. Everyone’s favorite Chain-smoking, Dr. Pepper Swilling, Indie schilling, Saint-in-Training here with some very exciting news for some of us indie fans and a heads up for the rest of you. I am very proud to announce that Boondock Saints 2 is in pre-production.
Now, if you’re out there wondering right now what the hell a Boondock Saint is and why you should even be reading a story about a sequel to a movie you never saw then you need to do something right now. Step away from the computer, get out your phone book, call every Blockbuster in your area and find one that has a copy of Boondock Saints in stock. Then you need to go rent it. Trust me on this. Boondock Saints is the greatest direct-to-video film ever put out, a film so good it SHOULD HAVE had a theatrical release. But it didn’t.
I know what you’re thinking out there, the same thing I thought when it was first recommended to me. “How good can it be if it went direct to video? Direct to Video is for movies the studios pretty much wouldn’t take a crap on, let alone put some juice behind to put in theatres. They are not fit for the screen.” Well, folks, this is one of the rare exceptions.
After seeing Boondock Saints I was baffled. My roommate at the time and I just stared at each other, excited about how cool the movie we’d just saw had been, and wondered at the top of our lungs about how on God’s green earth this hadn’t gone to theatres. I continued to wonder that for years, until just recently when I’d been put in touch with Troy Duffy, the writer/director of Boondock Saints and I just couldn’t resist asking him. In fact it was the very first thing I asked him.
“One word, ‘Columbine’.” He told me. “We had our screenings for the industry right in the thick of it. I think we all remember the relentless clips from “Basketball Diaries” and the “Matrix” bombarding us on the news every day. Clinton was also threatening to form a judiciary committee to look into violent films. Anything with violence was being held back. Anything with “youthful” violence was being buried. The “Trench Coat Mafia” aspect of Columbine was even seen as a parallel to some of the wardrobe in Boondock. While our screenings were always packed, no one was coming forward to buy the film for theatrical release. Finally, one of the acquisitions people pulled me aside and told me that Boondocks had been blacklisted due to the pressures the industry was receiving from the Columbine incident.”
Yeah, if that’s not talkback fodder, I don’t know what is. I, probably like the rest of you, had thought that the fallout over Columbine was pretty weak – a lot of talk, some mud slung at Marilyn Manson and video games that resulted in higher security measures at high schools and nothing more. Our arts were safe. We didn’t see any casualties. Well, apparently we were wrong. Boondock Saints took a bullet, but it wasn’t ready to die.
“I released it with the help of Blockbuster and at some of my own expense in three theaters outside of L.A. and two way outside of Boston. But with no “press machine” behind it, we were pretty much relying on walk-ins. So, not much there, I’m afraid. As for the film festivals, we played in Palm Springs, no awards. We screened in Cannes for foreign sales and we were rejected at Sundance. The highlight of our festival ride was the Tokyo International Film Festival. 2000 screaming, Japanese fans gave us a standing ovation. We also screened it at the German Fantasy Film Festival where it was well received again. Blockbuster saved our asses in North America. They pumped Boondocks because they had faith in the movie. Just recently we were informed that it was the largest grossing, straight to video success in Blockbuster’s history.”
Blockbuster released Boondock Saints as one of their ‘Blockbuster exclusives’, a collection of independent and made-specifically-for-Blockbuster releases that usually aren’t all that great. A few gems squeaked through, like the Jeremy Irons/Dominique Swain “Lolita”, but these were few and far between and Boondock Saints ruled them all. But chalk one up in the win column for Big Blue. Supporting this film was definitely a cool, ballsy move for them.
Recently Boondock Saints got itself a full on DVD release and the results were fantastic. I asked Troy how it was selling. “Extremely well. The new Fox DVD has all the bells and whistles the fans have been waiting for. It’s top rated on the net and at one point BDS was #2 on Amazon.com right behind “Harry Potter”. Toshiba released a DVD in Japan about a year ago, which went to number one it’s first day out and held the spot for over a solid month. The new Fox DVD just hit Japan last week. I guess they underestimated the demand. It went to #1 and sold out of stock in one day. I guess people are beginning to ask themselves, “Why is this little film topping charts five years later?” Why? “Cult”, baby. The coolest word in film.”
So enough with the history lesson already, What is Boondock Saints? Well, it’s the story of the MacManus brothers, a pair of good Irish boys who believe they’ve seen a vision and have been told to act as Boston’s avenging angels, cleaning up the streets and ridding the earth of its most despicable scum bags. Norman Reedus (Blade II, Deuces Wild, 8mm) and Sean Patrick Flanery (Suicide Kings, Powder, The Young Indiana Jones) play Connor and Murphy, the two fun loving lads bent on cleaning up their hometown. Hot on their trail is brilliant FBI investigator Paul Smecker, played by none other than Willem Dafoe (Yes, that Willem Dafoe). When the boys take out a few goons too many, the local mob gets nervous and calls in an infamous killing machine known only as ‘Il Duce’ played by an obsessed Billy Connolly (in a role that will make you forget he ever took over for Howard Hessman on “Head of the Class”) to wipe them out.
Boondock Saints is a balls out, cool as hell crime film with some of the most original shoot out/crime investigation sequences filmed in years. There’s shit here you ain’t seen before and some things you have - but never like this.
Troy and I talked about the cult status of the film. “Time after time you hear the same story. One guy sees it and makes ten of his friends watch it. It was all word of mouth. We started up a web site two months ago, www.theboondocksaints.com. Kids just found it by accident and now it’s growing exponentially just like the film. I guess you could say it’s doing “unexpectedly well”. There are guys (check the website if you don’t believe me) who have tattooed Connor and Murphy’s tats on themselves (Veritas, Aequitas – “truth” and “justice” respectively). We posted their pics and bios. Ain’t no fan like a Boondock fan. Boondock fans got this attitude like “Fuck you if you don’t know”. I think they actually prefer people not to. They have taken this movie personally and I have taken their same attitude.” Yeah, it was the same story for me too. I went out and bought a previously viewed copy of it and have passed it around to all my buddies. I’ve seen the film dozens of times and whenever I’m discussing underground or indie film with someone, the Saints are bound to come up.
So again, if you haven’t seen it, find it, watch it, relish it. Hopefully you will find the love for the boys that many of us have found.
So what’s up with Boondock Saints 2? Well let me tell you. The working title is “Boondock Saints II: The Second Coming” and will be the further adventures (so to speak) of the MacManus Brothers. “After Sean, Norm and Billy read it, we spoke several times. They are very excited to Rock-n-Roll on this and it was nice to swap “Boondock Stories” with them.” Alright, so the big three are back. I had to know. What about Dafoe? After all the Spider-man hoopla and Willem being deluged with material, would he have the chance or will to return?
“I spoke with him three or four times the week after “Spider Man” had it’s record breaking opening. He was frazzled from work and only a few days from opening a play in London. There were scheduling conflicts, other offers and it couldn’t be worked out. I cried about it for a while but soon I realized what I had to do. I had to go back in, take him out and make the story even better. Hard work but I did it. Willem and I will catch each other on something else down the line.”
Now I know many of you BDS fans are reacting the same way I first reacted when I heard that. “What? Fuck. Shit. No.” But let it sink in for a second. Let’s think about this. A few moments after I heard that Dafoe wouldn’t be returning I began to realize that he didn’t NEED to return. Of all the characters in Boondock Saints, he was the one that had achieved a fully realized character arc. His story was done, anything else would simply be after-thought. The Saints, well they still have more left to them, questions about what was next for them and how they would react in more complex situations. Paul Smecker didn’t have that kind of a future.
So who would step in? Who was going to bring new life to the Saints? “There are two new roles that I am very excited about. Romeo (29yrs) is a Hispanic American who has an instant bond with the brothers. He has all the makings of a new Saint. I like Clifton Collins Jr. for this (Franky Flowers in Traffic, Last Castle, Tigerland, Replacement Killers, and starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in “187”). He’s been a buddy of mine for a long time and is an outstanding talent. I also believe he’s got all the right charm to portray a wild ass like Romeo. The second is Eunice Bloom (30yrs) a FBI agent with a bi-polar disorder that feeds into her crime solving ability. I like a young actress named Marley Shelton for this. There are times when you just get a feeling on someone. I got the feeling with her.”
Okay, now I’ve heard buzz about this film for about 6 months now, little tidbits here and there about the goings-ons with the pre-production of BDS2. I didn’t have much and I was waiting on some conformation on various points before I opened my big yap on this, but this was something that was kept away from me. Clifton Collins Jr. As many of you may know, I’m a big fan of his and got the chance to hang with him in LA when I lucked upon him on Roger Avary’s “Rules of Attraction” set. I occasionally chat with Cliff about his upcoming projects but this, this he kept from me. And man did I get excited when I heard this. I cannot wait to see Cliffy kick some ass, shotgun style. Oh, let this happen, please let this happen.
Now, no one is definitely signed yet, as they are in the final phases of negotiations, but everyone is interested. That’s a good, good thing. I’m liking his casting choices and the direction he’s headed, and as soon as I can get my grubby, nicotine yellowed hands on this script, you bet your ass I’m gonna dive in and give you guys the heads up.
Now the current plans are to shoot this fall or this winter up in Toronto. Most of the movie takes place in Boston again, but Toronto is where they shot the first time so they’ll be faking Bean Town once more. There’s also a sequence to take place in Ireland and Duffy’s working out the logistics on that one.
So now the big question on all of your minds: is this going to be another Direct to Video film or are we talking movie screens this time? “That has been the real breath of fresh air here. Our financiers are adamant about the film being released theatrically this time. It was written in such a way that you don’t have to have seen the first one in order to understand the second. The Boondock Saints is classified as a “Cult” hit. In my opinion what this is, is a film Hollywood missed. They didn’t get it. However when a film like this hits the public…boom. Boondock never did “well” it always did “unexpectedly well”. I hope this time we get a better shot.”
Well folks, you can bet your britches that as this film develops I will be here to lay it on you. So until next time, friends,
Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
Massawyrm
