Troy Duffy, a bartender, musician, and aspiring screenwriter, orchestrates a career-altering breakthrough in 1997 after selling his script for The Boondock Saints to Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein for US$300,000, catching the attention of the William Morris Agency in the process. He is offered the extraordinary chance to direct the film with a US$15 million budget, while his band The Brood is lined up to produce the soundtrack and secure a recording deal with Maverick Records. Miramax even agrees to buy the Los Angeles bar J. Sloan’s where Duffy works and hire him to run it, turning his everyday surroundings into the nerve center of a Hollywood ascent. To document this ascent, he enlists friends Tony Montana and Mark Brian Smith to manage The Brood and capture the rollercoaster on film.
In those early days, Duffy revels in his success, flitting between celebrity hangouts at his bar, dining in luxury hotel restaurants, and moving into a production office where teleconferences with major film producers become part of his daily routine. Yet the shine wears off quickly as his swagger morphs into arrogance and abusive behavior, casting a shadow over the project. He is filmed openly insulting actors who are being considered for roles, including Ethan Hawke and Keanu Reeves, and his temper flares when he mispronounces Kenneth Branagh’s name before abruptly calling him a crude epithet. He also publicly disparages industry producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer. As delays mount and he demands swifter production, he threatens to switch to a rival agency, alienating Weinstein and his own production team in the process. Rumors begin to fly that Weinstein has given him informal blacklisting status, and Miramax eventually places the film in turnaround, cutting off conference calls and leaving Duffy with few real contacts in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, the musical side of his ambitions struggles as well. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter expresses interest in producing The Brood and praises lead vocalist Taylor Duffy, but recording sessions quickly devolve into a clash of egos. Duffy tries to take control, ignoring Baxter’s guidance and dismissing concerns about the band’s heavy drinking. After Maverick Records drops them, the group signs with Atlantic Records and renames themselves The Boondock Saints. The debut CD sells a mere 690 copies, and the band is dropped from the label before they can gain traction, effectively stalling their musical ambitions.
By 1998, financing for the film finally comes together through Franchise Pictures, albeit at a budget that totals less than half of what Miramax had offered. The Boondock Saints is teased at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, but American distributors pass on it en masse. A limited release in five cities follows, but it performs poorly and is pulled after a week, only to later find life on home video and DVD. On the night of its Palm Springs International Film Festival screening, a car unexpectedly jumps the curb and collides with Duffy and producer Chris Brinker; both escape with minor injuries, while the driver and vehicle escape without identification.
The film’s long-term fate is paradoxical: it becomes a sleeper hit on home video even as franchise financing binds Duffy to financial strictures that block profits from television, home media, or foreign sales. The money from his film and music ventures dwindles, his bar closes, and the dream of a Hollywood breakthrough fades for the foreseeable future, leaving him unable to secure work in the industry for six years after the film’s production.
