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Troy Duffy Returns to the Scene of the Crime with Boondock Saints Sequel
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Every now and then a lighting or camera guy would pull me aside. “Boondock is one of my favorite movies. It’s an honor to be working on this film.” I had been trying to put my finger on what was so different this time around and it hit me: The fan base was constantly looming overhead. They had deemed Boondock sacred ground, and everyone felt it. Nobody wanted to be the guy who fucked up Boondock II in any way.
A week later we were in a field in Flamborough, Ontario. Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, my two dear friends and also my leads, teetered atop two very nervous horses. It was a nightmare. These animals weren’t having it. They couldn’t stand still and were displeased with their cargo.
Then I heard the sound you never want to hear on set, a sudden explosion of 50 different versions of “Oh shit!” I wheeled around. Flanery’s horse was trying to buck him off! Luckily, Sean was an experienced rider and was wrestling that beast like a rodeo champ. ‘That’s it! We’re done with the horses. One of my guys breaks a leg, we’re screwed.’
Later, I stood in a little Irish cottage we had built on the same farm. I gazed into a small handheld monitor that the camera guys had rigged for me as the indomitable Billy uttered his first lines of Boondock II. Billy was legit as ever as he spoke to the priest, Sibeal MacManus, expertly played by Mairtin O’Carrigan. I began to get lost in Billy’s performance when a moth fluttered up into frame. A moth! A symbol of death and rebirth! Billy’s character embodies these ideas! He’s even got a tattoo of a butterfly on his hand!
After I said, ‘Cut,’ camera operator Gilles Corbeil pulled away from his eyepiece, “We gotta go again, boss. There was a moth in the shot.” I turned, ‘The moth stays! I love the goddamn moth!’ (Spoiler: The moth made the cut. Keep your eye out for it in the first five minutes.)
What makes a good sequel? In my opinion you must give the fans everything they love about the first movie, but throw them a curveball, a new story they could not see coming. In week three, my biggest curveball sashayed onto the set: Julie Benz was here to play her opening scene as FBI agent Eunice Bloom. Julie was basically replacing Willem Dafoe’s character, Smecker, from the first film. Big shoes to fill, and I had not coddled her.
Julie was the first girl we had let into the boy’s clubhouse. Though I was sponsoring her for membership, I knew she had to earn her patch on her own. We were both nervous, but when the day was done, I knew she had killed it… and dismembered the body.
Word soon came from the board of directors—in this case, Billy, Sean and Norm—“She’s one of us. Patch her in.”
With my next curveball, I was taking no chances. Romeo, the third Saint, would be played by Clifton Collins Jr. Cliff is a longtime friend and I wrote the role specifically for him. Working with friends is always risky, but Cliffy and I had a shorthand: He’d roll up, “What’chu need, dog?” I’d tell him and two minutes later, I’d be looking at it. The man is a well-oiled machine.
Once the whirlwind in Toronto died down, I was sure of one thing: Every actor and craftsman who worked on Boondock II had given it their all. As I finish this article, I have just completed my final day of work on The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. It’s a bit sad but I’m glad it’s done. Is it any good? The fans will have the final say. See you in theaters.
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 9, 2010
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by Audrey on 10/12/10 at 9:55 am
Hey, I’m sorry, this is amazing. I’m actually writing my college english paper over the boondock saints. Its supposed to be a film review. My friend showed me your movie over a year ago and I just fell in love with it! You’ve done AMAZING work, I own both the first and second movies and I’ve bought every boondock saints poster that I’ve been able to find. When people walk into my room I give them the innocent look and say, “I’m not a fan, nooo not me. *innocence*” Haha. They never believe me. Anyway I’d really like to tell you myself how amazing you’ve done on both films but I’ve learned the hard way how difficult it is to get in touch with celebrities, though I keep trying anyway. Keep up the AMAZING work! I will be waiting for the third movie very very very impatiently, hehe. =)
- Comment by Jack Johnson on 8/29/11 at 10:49 am
What ever happened to Troy Duffy writer directer of ‘the boondock saints’? And allso the subject of a documentary entitled ‘overnight’
wow you’ve certainly done you’re homework thanks for the input, frankly i don’t think anyone’s going to top that.
For the record [as if anyones making one] i’ve seen the boondock saints and frankly i’d rank it as one of my favourite movies, allthough having said that i used to have the matrix in that list and now i think its pants so only time will tell, and to tell you the truth i really didn’t find it to be all that violent.
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This story was published in the Fall 2009 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Saints and Sinners/Hollywood’s most wanted man returns to the scene of the crime
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