MovieChat Forums > Overnight (2005) Discussion > Weinstein never intended to make 'Boondo...

Weinstein never intended to make 'Boondock'


Okay. So I just saw Overnight and, as someone who actually works in the industry (I will not divulge anymore details to retain my anonymity) I'd like to shed some light for a few people. Harvey Weinstein was NEVER going to make Boondock Saints, no matter how much or little of an ass hole Duffy was. Consider this...a big wig Hollywood exec comes to a bar, HIMSELF, to cut a deal with a NO NAME NOBODY bartender that promises to A) purchase his script and finance the film B) he can direct even though he has absolutely ZERO experience in ANYTHING EVEN RELATED to filmmaking, nor has probably ever even been on a film set, C) he has final say on the edit (which many experienced & established directors still do not get) and D) buy the freaken' bar for him???

DUFFY - You are the DUMBEST MOTHER FnCKER on the planet!

So things did go to his head after the "media blitz." Everyone wanted to talk to him, right? WRONG! The whole entire thing was orchestrated by Weinstein and Miramax to A) get hundreds of thousands of dollars in free marketing and publicity when the studio was anticipating it's most successful year since it's creation and B) have every young, hot undiscovered talent send Miramax their scripts FIRST, so they can be the first studio to buy or pass because they'll all be stupid enough to believe "I'll get oodles of money, final cut and they might even buy me a bar!" Most of the media stories were probably set up by Miramax, but made to look like the magazine was independently interested in doing a piece.

This is how the industry works. Duffy - you said in Overnight that Weinstein was jealous of you and wanted to be you. I seriously doubt he was sitting in his giant luxury hot tub in his billion dollar mansion just aching to be more like you. He never gave a damn about you or your script. It was all for publicity. He used you to make more money and you fell for it hook, line and sinker. No one in Hollywood would ever invest millions of dollars in someone with no background or experience to have free reign over their project, no matter how talented they (think they) are. MAYBE he would have produced your movie if you weren't such an ass and actually showed a shred of natural talent beyond your script, but you did blow it there. All you did was bitch, gloat and yell at people rather than actually get things done on your own.

As far as your ego is concerned, I've seen a lot worse in this industry but they usually have actual accomplishments to back it up. You were boasting about how amazing your project was going to be before you even had it cast. A great movie can't be planned. You can have the most brilliant script in the world, but EVERYTHING needs to come together like magic...the funding, the cast, even the weather...for it to be truly special. Usually, you won't be able to tell how good a movie will be until it's almost completed. There are a million little nuances involved and you just can't predict something like that. But I really do wish you good luck. The ego will actually come in handy in this industry, if you can ever produce something worthwhile and profitable to justify it. Until you do, keep your mouth on the back burner. If it happens, then you can say "I told you so."

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The film makers don't document why Miramax pulled the plug on him. Your guess makes sense, but it makes Harvey Weinstein the ugliest guy in the room.

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Interesting post. But you kind of contradict yourself when you say "Weinstein might have produced the movie if Duffy hadn't been such an ass." Did Weinstein intend to use Duffy all along, or did he decide to use him only after the personality issues became apparent?

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I think what he was saying might be that Weinstein did intend to use Duffy all along, but that if Duffy had impressed him by being efficient and likable, then there's a chance that it would have been enough to change Weinstein's mind and get him behind the project.

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Finally... someone said it. He was a publicity stunt gone wild. However, he is talented, there is no arguing that.

Hopefully, the lesson was learned and we can see 'Boondock 2' or another project from a great writer/director. In an industry where forgiveness for just about everything (including child molesting, hit and runs, murder, you name it...) is given to all who have talent. Let's give this guy another chance. Sure he's probably got an ego but who could make it in Hollywood if you didn't have an ego? Everyone says "no" but if you believe in yourself enough to keep going until someone says "yes" is that perseverance or an ego?

Just because he seems to be a jerk according to this documentary doesn't make him less of a writer/director.

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[deleted]

How do you know that Troy Duffy has some talent? Have you actually seen the film he directed. It was
rejected by every film destributor and based on Troy's ego the film must me crap.If Harvey Weinstein
and offered to give me money to make my film I would have shown him respect and known better than
to piss off the man financing my film.Yes you have to have some what of an ego in the film business but
making a film is a collaborative process and if you piss of the people who are collaborating with you
to make the film than your "talent" will not be enough to outway your stupidity. Becoming a successful
film maker has very little to do with talent and a lot more to do with luck. If talent was enough than there would not be as many god awful movies made every year. There are a lot of untalented hacks who have
made it in the film industry only because of luck andf the fact that overall the public has sucky taste when
it comes to the movies that people go and see.The amount of money that a movie makes is not equal to
its quality. When a piece of crap like "The Fog" was the top money maker at the box office than we know
it doesn't take talent to make a successful film. A little humility on Duffy's part may have helped him get
the film made the way he wanted,but instead he choose to act like a spoiled brat and what he got was what he deserved and that was to go down in flames.

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Uhh, what are you even talking about, of course we've seen the movie he directed and it was amazing. This guy may be a dick but it was a great film. I thought it was pretty original and given that he wrote and directed it he probably has some talent...

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The boondock saints wasn't amazing, anyone who know's anything about film will tell you that, only the ignorant and the infantile will say it's a good movie, and I don't mean ignorant offensively (infantile sure) but if you knew anything about what makes a good movie, a good story, a good script, good filmmaking, you'd know that The Boondock Saints is not a good movie at all, it's very ham-fisted, cheap, and shallow

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The one person I know who loved this film was a violent (former) neo-Nazi I worked with. He raved about how good it was, he even offered to give me a download of it (which kind of shows how much he really supports the film industry). He also recognized when I pointed out that 'Il Duce' was a title of Mussolini. Having seen the movie now, I think it is one of the most rightwing films ever, so doesn't surprise if neo-Nazis think it's great.

Having said which, I think it's good bad film. The story, the script, the flashy directing and the laughable moral subtext are all terrible, but the acting alone is the single redeeming feature, and overall it works if you just pretend it is a parody of Tarantino-styled gangster flicks, and not an earnestly meant ego-wank about Catholic Irish-American culture (which I think it actually is).
The presence of William Dafoes' gay-but-straight-in-spirit character and the two 'saints' Italian-American buddy (who has to be the dumb one and has to die) make it an attempt by a really obnoxiously rightwing mind to be what he thinks is liberal and non-judgemental.

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I know a few people who love Boondock Saints, and they're all the kind of people who constantly brag about how "Irish" they are because they had a great-grandmother called Donnelly or whatever. Being Irish is now considered cool, so they'll make sure that everyone they ever meet knows about their "heritage," and they'll force themselves to drink Guinness even though they can barely keep it down (after mispronouncing "sláinte") and maybe start a drunken fight later on because "that's what Irish guys do, right?"

That honestly seems to be the film's core audience, which is not all that surprising when you consider that Duffy himself is clearly one of them. Actual Irish people have nothing but contempt for these frauds.

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[deleted]


Everybody is talking like the movie didn't get made or that it didn't become a cult hit on DVD. For anyone not paying attention, the movie did get made and did become a cult hit on DVD.

So, while he may have been a handful before finally getting to roll cameras, the bottom line is he did roll cameras and a lot of people like the movie.

Like one person commented, "He got to make his movie." And that puts him far above a lot of the other people in LaLa Land who will likely never get their shot.

But now, the focus is on the followup movie.

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[deleted]

poor dude

passport that authenticates

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Duffy only has himself to blame.

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Actually someone who's sold a couple of low budget scripts...Yeah, the OP sounds about right. Hollywood does it all the time...

Snatch up up scripts for varying degrees of cash (and the writers usually don't see nearly the figure that is shown in VARIETY) for varying degrees of reasons -- publicity, they like the writer and want him for another project, they want to keep the script out of the hands of someeone they don't like... etc etc etc.

Scripts sales, even in the six figures, are a small percentage of the film so if said film doesn't get made that is the price of doing business.

Larry

http://www.larrymadill.com/
Yahoo Messenger: crazyscreenwriter

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Definately the most intelligent post on the subject of a highly overrated movie and from the (obviously) skewed perspective of this documentary a real ego-maniacal guy for not having anything to back it up.

I'm posting only to bump the post up.

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^^ Dude, imdb.com isn't going to crash because the "opinion" threads are short one or two posts, WAKE UP!!! Post if you have SOME form of opinion that is AT LEAST rational...

First off, "xman2000", you said "How do you know that Troy Duffy has some talent? Have you actually seen the film he directed. It was
rejected by every film destributor and based on Troy's ego the film must me crap." That tells ALL of us that YOU havent seen this movie, so why form some sort of opinion like you KNOW what happened?? STFU!!!

"The Boondock Saints" is an unbelievably good movie, and "Overnight" is a great documentary, and if you HAD'VE watched "Overnight", you would know that he did film it... You would also know that he burnt EVERY bridge and blew EVERY opportunity given to him... It says it at the end of the film, he was given every chance perceivable and he just *beep* on everyone...

But, we all want to see a "Boondock 2", well, Troy's gonna have to pull off a "Fiddy Cent"... "Fiddy" was blacklisted from ALL rap because, well, Fiddy cant rap for shiddy (haha, had to be done), so why is it that he's now some multi-millionaire rapper?? Coz someone shot him a bunch of times!!! I think thats what Troy should do, get shot in his face and, if he survives, make some BS story up and before you know it, BOOM HEADSHOT, he's back on the top, bypassing everyone yet again!!!

On second thoughts, just kill the fat bizarch!!!

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Was the first line directed at me? I don't recall trying to "crash" the opinion threads? I believe i said i wanted to "bump" the thread to the top because I agree with it.

And I have seen BOTH "Boondock Saints" and "Overnight." Personally I thought BS was okay. I didn't hate it, but I didn't have much love for it either. I would definately call it highly overrated.

Overnight, however, was brilliant (IMO) if for no other reason that as a filmmaker it made me take a step back and think about my own ego and realize that I myself needed an ego-check. I don't feel i was as bad as TD, but I never want to be.

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Weinstein's a marketing genius. I forgot all about Duffy saying, 'he wants to be me.' That got me rolling.



www.myspace.com/theslowcentury

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purple chef although you make many valid points i don't really believe you work in the film industry.it's easy for me to come on here and say i will not go into details but this proves nothing.

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Your reply is just an empty statement from an empty hater...As one of the handful of people on this thread who IS an industry insider, it ENTIRELY speaks to the purple chef's legitimacy that they would not reveal themselves. Hollywood is a very cruel, vindictive and unsavory beast underneath the glitz and it behooves anyone w/ a sense of self preservation or ambition not to attach a name to such an accurate statement on the ugly doings of powerful figures in the business.

Big Hands Do Big Things

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I can believe that Weinstein signed Duffy mainly to generate a certain kind of publicity for Miramax, which could attract more aspiring directors and writers to his company, but it seems like the plan would be more effective if it actually produced a money-spinning film for the studio. Who would want to be the next Tarantino if his first and only film had been stuck in turnaround hell until he found independent financing, and then it practically went straight to video?

The Tarantino legend has a magical allure because the video store clerk actually became a celebrated auteur and influential power player who has made a lot of money for himself and Miramax.

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[deleted]

it seems like the plan would be more effective if it actually produced a money-spinning film for the studio.
I think the deal was real at first. But this guy was such a tool that every single person that met him realized this was a mess. I suspect Weinstein realized this was all a huge mistake. He does know what he is doing.

I imagine the conversations about Duffy, when he wasn't in the room, with people in the industry were unflattering and frequent. I doubt one single person he met thought he was competent.

Weinstein got some good press. But I still think he did really want to make the movie at the start

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