Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Boondock Saints 2 Theaters

As a fan of the over-the-top, ultra violent Boondock Saints, I am pleased to announce that Boondock Saints 2 is coming to theaters on October 30th, just two days from now. It took them long enough; ten years to be exact.

From Moviefone:

The bad-guy-slaying McManus brothers, aka "the Saints," are back in action in a sequel to the 1999 box-office-dud-turned-DVD-hit 'The Boondock Saints' -- and it only took them 10 years to do it.

OK, so that's a long time -- especially if you number among the seriously diehard fans, some of whom have been known to decorate their chest with tattoos of the gun-wielding, Bible-quoting brothers' faces ... or, less creepily, mimic the bros' own tats by getting "Aquitas" and "Veritas" inked on their hands.

When 'Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day' explodes into theaters with its guns blazing on Oct. 30, it will mark the culmination of a 10-year war waged by filmmaker Troy Duffy -- once considered one of Hollywood's most promising up-and-coming young talents -- to get his second film made.

Why has it taken so long to make a sequel? For starters, although the original has made more than $40 million on DVD, it earned a paltry $30,000 at the box office in 1999. To be fair, it played in only two theaters for a single week -- but there's a reason for that.

Back in 1999, Miramax mogul Harvey Weinstein read Duffy's 'Boondock' script and was so impressed that he plucked the then-bartender from obscurity and signed him up to direct the film, tagged with a generous $15 million budget. What ensued is the stuff of Hollywood legend, as Duffy had a massive falling out with Weinstein over casting and their divergent visions for the film, prompting Harvey to bail on the deal (see the engrossing doc 'Overnight,' made by Duffy's former pals for a play-by-play of his brisk plummet from grace). Duffy eventually made the movie for $6 million with Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus playing the very entertaining brothers -- but by then it was too late. Duffy's reputation was shot, the movie got a painfully small release and -- perhaps worst of all -- Duffy had signed away DVD rights, so he saw not a cent of 'Boodock''s bountiful DVD earnings.

Though he's been embroiled in a legal battle for the DVD monies ever since, Duffy was finally able to nab $8 million in financing, pen a script for the sequel and reunite most of the original cast for 'Boondock II,' which sees the McManus bros come out of hiding in Ireland to avenge the death of a beloved Bostonian priest and bring their brand of Biblical justice upon new foes, including Peter Fonda and Judd Nelson.

Distributed domestically by Sony, the film opens in a respectable 70 theaters nationwide this Friday (much better than the two the original got) and will expand to more screens in the weeks to follow -- so long as the 'Boondock'-loving masses show up to support their boys, of course. Pray that they do.

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1 comment:

Gary Wilkes said...

I hope Boondock Saints 2 doesn't go the way of Die Hard 2, and other lame-o sequels